Kids are rare and precious here!

So, let’s let them sit on the center console of the minivan with no seats or belts as we move thru this wild world! What’s the worst that could happen???

What the fu** are Japanese parents thinking letting kids run wild while they are driving???

8 comments
  1. I was literally talking to a co-worker about this today. I was shocked to see a infant seat in the front seat forward facing, more shocked to see a kid hanging out the window going down the highway. To be fair, the driving speeds are slower…

  2. I went on a field trip with my boss and 8 children. I was having a heart attack watching everyone sit there on winding mountain roads with no seat belts on

  3. Yeah, it’s crazy how relaxed parents are with kids and car seats here. One of the first things we bought when we moved to Japan was a car seat for our son, the one we left in the US was getting old so not worth bringing. He always sits in it, even when the other kids at kinder are bouncing around inside the car when leaving school.

    But I did notice that one of the moms who got into an accident driving to school(everyone was okay) now has her daughter in a car seat every day at pickup time.

    They really should actually enforce the law about this and increase the penalty. I lived in California when they went to mandatory seatbelt laws for everyone in the car, took all of maybe 2 years before everyone buckled up out of habit. It would not take long to change things if it was actually enforced.

  4. I remember as a kid I unbuckled my seatbelt and started climbing around the backseats. My father told me to sit down and buckle my seatbelt. I didn’t listen. He told me a few more times, no result. A few minutes later he slammed on the breaks and I went flying into the back of the front seats. I started crying but wasn’t hurt. Just a little bump on the arm from a plastic center cover.

    From that day on, I always wear a seatbelt. Even when ANYONE gets in the car. I don’t move the car until all seatbelts are done up, no exceptions. The wife and MIL were dumbfounded the first few times.

  5. I don’t want to sound discriminatory here but Japan, although maybe more conscious than other Asian nations, Asia in general is decades behind “the west” when it comes to general societal safety and well-being practices. Like Japan has the “laws” but they are barely enforced.

    What seem like “normal” or general common sense for safety just does not exist in Asia.

    For Japan another clear example of this is parents (usually mothers) riding their bikes with one or more children, often even without helmets. If you go to China or SEA you will be in for even more of a complete shock with the lack of safety/non-enforcement of laws there. So Japan is actually maybe one of the best in Asia (not that it’s any defense for what people get away with here)

  6. Did you read the news sometimes ago?
    A kid died because he/she got locked up inside the school bus.
    Apparently the teacher didn’t double check the bus after arrived at the school, and only realize it when they do head counting.

  7. Probably a similar thought process to deciding to watch the TV on the central dash sat nav screen while driving.

    Or driving around with a squad of small yapping dogs balanced on your lap.

    Driving standards are quite exciting here at times

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