The people paying 150,000 yen for ランドセル are quite limitted😂 Definitely not majority. Also, I hardly see kids walking around 9 or 10 pm in my prefecture. Lots of foreigners judge things in Japan after living for a while in big cities like Tokyo or Osaka, but just because they happen in these cities doesn't mean they happen every corner of Japan...
I'm teaching university students in the U.S., but I thought ones in the U.S. are more independent and diligent than Japan adversely. In the case of Japan, kids in metropolis are usually different from ones in rural area, so I guess you guys met such a kid
I already turned to 24. When I was a kid , like almost 14years ago, alway I went hanging out with my friends(3-10ppl) to a park or public school by bicycle after school and weekends . It was for 2h on weekdays and it was 5-6h on weekends for spending time to friends time . Nowadays children don’t seems to hang out somewhere so that they have many practices.
Now is 2024 and I live in Japan. However, my elementary school boys walk 3km to school on their own in a group with the older child taking on the role of guardians in place of parents looking after the younger ones. When they come home from school, if they see kids from the neighborhood out side, they run to each other and start playing together. In the rural areas of japan, traditional ways of life are still very much alive!!
Very interesting. As you said,It is very difficult to live in Japan if you deviate from the rules. Unrewarded people who stray from the rules sometimes express themselves in manga and anime.