# How Japan Built Cities Where You Could Send Your Toddler on an Errand ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article0.00998d930354.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Henry Grabar]] - Full Title: How Japan Built Cities Where You Could Send Your Toddler on an Errand - Category: #articles - URL: https://slate.com/business/2022/04/old-enough-netflix-do-japanese-parents-really-send-toddlers-on-errands.html ## Highlights - Along with neighborhood events like block parties and festivals, that helps build up a dense social network that can help out in a pinch, like in Hajimete episode 7, when the local hardware store owner helps Miro cross the street. In a survey of 14 countries, Japanese parents were the most likely to agree with the idea that neighborhood adults look out for other people’s children. - The biggest winner of this system might be Mom. When kids need a chaperone, the role falls mainly to Mom, in both the U.S. and Japan. But Japanese kids ages 10 and 11, Waygood found, make just 15 percent of weekday trips with a parent, compared to 65 percent of trips for American kids. A city that frees children also frees their parents.