Japan gets to have free-range children because they have functional public transit. We don't, so we don't. For what it's worth I'd also point out that the last

Japan gets to have free-range children because they have functional public transit. We don't, so we don't. For what it's worth I'd also point out that the last time I was in Japan all the train stations had ads for transit cards for kids that e-mailed parents whenever they were used. This is functionally identical to American helicopter parenting, IMO.