She was making her first solo bus trip, to visit her grandparents. The children's bright yellow caps can be seen bobbing among the morning commuters. A yellow patch pinned to their shoulders identifies them as first-graders. Sometimes anxious mothers follow at a discreet distance, but as early as next week most children will be on their own, riding public buses, changing trains and navigating crowded streets and stations. With historically low crime rates rising in Japan, many parents say it is not as safe for children to walk the streets alone, as when they themselves were small.
Schools ask parents to send first-graders on their own after a few trial runs.
Many prohibit drop-offs and pickups by car because surrounding streets are too congested. There are no school buses because children come from too many different directions and distances. But I know it's not true. Ishii doesn't let her children play in the park alone, as she did as a child. But her daughter does walk the short distance to school alone.