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Right, this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is. I grew up in a mid-size town in Germany and all children went

Right, this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is. I grew up in a mid-size town in Germany and all children went to school on their own starting from age 6. We spent the whole day playing outside roaming the city and surrounding forests and our parents did not care at all. It was completely normal. A year ago I moved to California and my wife and I were shocked to see how paranoid American parents are. We live in a perfectly calm and peaceful residential neighborhood but never see children play on the streets or in the park around the corner. Some people do not even allow their children to play in the garden because of germs and "dangerous" animals and whatnot.

kailuowang 11y ago
> this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is This is a typical U.S. center mentality. US is an outlier in many aspects in day-to-day life. And when American travels abroad they deem many difference they encountered as exotic things unique to that place. I heard an American tourist comment when an Italian restaurant heated the milk before serving her child - "what an interesting Italian tradition", well, people all over the world avoid giving their children milk of fridge temperature.
- wavefunction 11y ago
  Heating milk for a baby on a stove in a pot of water is an ancient American trope in media, so perhaps you just ran into an individual idiot and made the mistake of extrapolating from a single case.
mahranch 11y ago
> this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is. I think what makes Japan the outlier is their shockingly low violent crime rate, crime rate against children (abductions, etc) and one of the lowest drug use in first world countries. I remember during the 80s, one of the big things being pushed for by politicians was a low crime rate and low drug use (same time D.A.R.E came into the world). Looks like Japan discovered that utopia. Japan certainly has it's cultural problems (which country doesn't?) but I'd love to have their problems instead of our own. It would be nice to be worrying about working 12 hour days instead of worrying about being shot on my way to work every day (last year, a bullet ricocheted of the concrete near me kicking up a piece or a rock which hit me in my leg, requiring stitches).
- EiZei 11y ago
  So you'd rather give up your free time (and freedom at work) rather than risk the incredibly unlikely possibility of being shot by a random stranger?
  - mahranch 11y ago
    You're looking at this from a selfish, individualistic point of view. I'm looking at society in general - I'm looking at the bigger picture. Japan completely eliminated shooting deaths via guns thanks to their ban on guns (source:http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/ http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-l...). They also have the lowest crime rate in the world. Orders of magnitude less than America's. In a way, it really is a utopia compared to what we're living in. Would I trade some free time and a little freedom at work (both of which, are being addressed by Japanese companies and are "fixable" so they may only be a temporary problem) in order to save thousands of lives every single year, reduce the crime rate an order of magnitude, and make our country objectively safer and nicer? And also raise our quality of life (Japan is ranked higher on the "where-to-be-born" index) Why yes, yes I most certainly would.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      And now look at Germany – we got the same results at Japan, but even improved life in every aspect for the average citizen compared to the US.

kailuowang 11y ago

> this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is This is a typical U.S. center mentality. US is an outlier in many aspects in day-to-day life. And when American travels abroad they deem many difference they encountered as exotic things unique to that place. I heard an American tourist comment when an Italian restaurant heated the milk before serving her child - "what an interesting Italian tradition", well, people all over the world avoid giving their children milk of fridge temperature.

wavefunction 11y ago
Heating milk for a baby on a stove in a pot of water is an ancient American trope in media, so perhaps you just ran into an individual idiot and made the mistake of extrapolating from a single case.

mahranch 11y ago

> this articles makes it appear as if Japan was the outlier but the truth is that the US is. I think what makes Japan the outlier is their shockingly low violent crime rate, crime rate against children (abductions, etc) and one of the lowest drug use in first world countries. I remember during the 80s, one of the big things being pushed for by politicians was a low crime rate and low drug use (same time D.A.R.E came into the world). Looks like Japan discovered that utopia. Japan certainly has it's cultural problems (which country doesn't?) but I'd love to have their problems instead of our own. It would be nice to be worrying about working 12 hour days instead of worrying about being shot on my way to work every day (last year, a bullet ricocheted of the concrete near me kicking up a piece or a rock which hit me in my leg, requiring stitches).

EiZei 11y ago
So you'd rather give up your free time (and freedom at work) rather than risk the incredibly unlikely possibility of being shot by a random stranger?
- mahranch 11y ago
  You're looking at this from a selfish, individualistic point of view. I'm looking at society in general - I'm looking at the bigger picture. Japan completely eliminated shooting deaths via guns thanks to their ban on guns (source:http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/ http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-l...). They also have the lowest crime rate in the world. Orders of magnitude less than America's. In a way, it really is a utopia compared to what we're living in. Would I trade some free time and a little freedom at work (both of which, are being addressed by Japanese companies and are "fixable" so they may only be a temporary problem) in order to save thousands of lives every single year, reduce the crime rate an order of magnitude, and make our country objectively safer and nicer? And also raise our quality of life (Japan is ranked higher on the "where-to-be-born" index) Why yes, yes I most certainly would.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    And now look at Germany – we got the same results at Japan, but even improved life in every aspect for the average citizen compared to the US.