“Izakayas (casual bars that serve alcohol and snacks) are busy establishments,” he said. “There is little room for error.”
Ishii, the older of two boys, often went to the market in the morning to buy rice, vegetables and eels, then took the bus to pick up the restaurant linen from a laundromat a few blocks away. It was hard work and “an enormous amount of responsibility,” he said, and “very overwhelming at first.”
He was only five.
“I would cry if people in the shops or in the market asked where my parents were,” says Ishii, now 28. “After all, I was just a kid and it was my first real foot in the world. It was scary.”
“Old enough!” — called “the healthiest show you’ve ever seen” by the streaming giant upon the show’s March debut — is an unscripted series in which Japanese toddlers, ages 2-5, are sent on simple errands to help their parents unattended and often while navigating busy roads and transportation systems.
In one episode, two bickering preschool cousins are forced to work together to navigate traffic lights and cross streets, while delivering a bag of groceries to their grandmother. After some tears, they finally reach their destination and learn to put their differences aside. In one of the most popular episodes of the series, a 3-year-old named Yuka ventures to her local market to help her mother buy fresh seafood back for dinner, while charming the vendors.
The show garnered much applause in Japan when it first debuted on Nipon TV in 1991 and the reruns were also a hit, even if the American public seems unsure of what to think.
Reactions to the show in the US ranged from amusement — Selena Gomez parodied it in a skit for “Saturday Night Live” — to disbelief, to shock and condemnation.
“Do this in the US and the child will never be seen again,” one viewer wrote on Twitter. “It’s crazy they just let them out in public,” said another. Some even accused Netflix of “promoting negligence and endangering children”.
In fact, for some American parents, there is a faint sense of jealousy that some of their Japanese counterparts are seemingly able to let children roam free in relative safety knowing that Japan’s relatively low crime environment means they are unlikely to be harmed. .
“I don’t think I could have done this to my child at this young age,” said one Twitter user. “I would have had a full-blown anxiety attack knowing how prone she is to accidents and all the crazy people out there in the world.
“Maybe it only works in Japan. It’s a miracle to see.’
A disappearing tradition
The show’s creators insist it’s safe and that production staff and camera crew are always nearby and on standby. Some even wear costumes to pretend to be road electricians or regular passers-by, but are instructed not to start a conversation with the kids at all times.
“They know that when a child talks to them, they have to handle the situation as an adult would and they are instructed not to start a conversation with the child,” said Executive Director Junji Ouchi.
Ouchi said the original idea behind the show was to “document the ‘grocery shopping tradition’ before it fades away.”
“Family situations have changed dramatically in the more than 30 years since we started this, but in Japan the tradition of sending children for groceries continues,” he said. “We didn’t feel like we were making a show for television. It was more like a documentary. (We were trying to) find families who would let us record their stories.”
Of course, the children do not always succeed in their missions and there are many challenges. Messages are lost or forgotten and there are plenty of distractions along the way. But there are no disasters — something that has increased skepticism from some critics who question whether it was staged.
But Japanese parents have defended the show’s rendering — though note that it may not reflect life in all parts of the country.
“What you see in the show may seem entertaining, but it’s definitely not staged,” said Emi Sakashita, a working mom from Tokyo who now lives in Singapore. rural towns. “Traffic and other risks are much greater in places like Tokyo or Osaka,” she said. “Parents (in those cities) usually wait until their kids are much older before allowing them to go out and do things unsupervised.”
Others point out that it is common to see Japanese children attending school alone and that it is relatively safe for them to do so due to Japan’s low crime rates, excellent city planning and modern infrastructure. Neighborhoods are designed with young children in mind; speed limits are low and motorists give way to pedestrians.
Sakashita, 43, who remembers her own coming-of-age experience navigating the streets and public transportation, said the practice was important in “giving children independence and confidence.”
“But Japanese parents really cry when we see our kids going out for the first time and doing things alone,” she said.
“We like to see them trying little by little and want to trust that they will help us when they are older. Many of us also have little choice. We work hard and often for long hours and don’t always have parents or live-in help, so it’s important for our kids to become independent.”
Her son Kanta has been going out alone since he was three years old to buy fruit, drinks and snacks. He is now 8 and goes to school alone by bus. “He was very brave, but at first he didn’t enjoy (the independence). He thought it was scary,” Sakashita said.
His sister Kokoro (5) walks alone to kindergarten.
Both siblings were inspired by “Old Enough!”. “They are very impressed when they see children on the show shopping and completing chores,” Sakashita said.
“They even compare their age to kids on the show and say they do what they do.”
