There were an estimated 16.93 million children under 15 in Japan as of 2011, with about 1.1 million births in 2006. Raising a child in Japan costs an estimated $662,000 and takes up over 25% of household budgets. Japanese culture emphasizes children inheriting responsibility as the head of the household rather than individual identity. Children are given independence at young ages such as taking public transportation alone starting in elementary school.

1. Japanese
Children

2. ● There were an estimated 16.93 million
children under the age of 15 in Japan as of
April 2011. This is 90,000 less than the year
before and the 30th straight year of decline.
● About 1.1 million babies were born in Japan in
2006. About 1 in 30 children born that year had
a non-Japanese parent.
● According to one estimate it costs $662,000
to raise a child in Japan. One survey found
that child-raising cost avenged ¥72,000 a
month and ate up 26.2 percent of a
household’s budget.
● A family counselor in Japan told the
Washington Post, "Here, the children inherit a
position as head of the household. It's not
the individual identity which parents nurture,
but the successor of the house."

3. Child Customs in Japan
● When a child reaches the age of seven days, his or her father bows before
the household Shinto shrine and places on it a paper with the child's name.
This informs ancestors of a the new addition to the family. Friends and
relatives give gifts in the name-giving ceremony.
● At the age of 32 or 33 days a child is taken to a Shinto shrine. The child's
name is recorded and the child officially becomes a member of the
community. At four months of age, the mother helps the child with chop
sticks in the "first eating ceremony.” At the ages of three, five and seven,
a child is take to a shrine and thanks is offered that the child reached
these ages.
● After a baby tooth falls out it is thrown onto a roof rather than collected
by the Tooth Fairy. Throwing baby teeth on the roof is supposed to help
the teeth grow straight.

4. Children's behavior in Japan
● Young children are given a pretty free reign, and allowed to do pretty much
what they want. They are often noisy and rowdy in supermarkets and other
public places.
● Children often learn more discipline in school than from their parents.
● Kids like to pull and feel the hairy arms and legs of adult Westerners.
disciplining children
● Japanese children tend to be well mannered. If a child behaves poorly often times the
parents are blame more than the child.
● Children are sometimes punished by being locked out of the house. Children often cry with
fierce shrieks when this happens.
● The horror that Japanese children experience in this situation Kurotani said can be
explained in terms of uchi (“inside”) and soto(“outside”) distinctions. “Children are taught
from early on to respect the uchi-stor boundaries, and to recognize the different values
associated within these realms. Uchi is a clean, safe haven and a place of belonging, while
soto is a space of unknown danger and possible contamination. Everyday routines, such as
taking one’s shoes off when entering a building, do not only reinforce the distinction in
abstraction, but also inscribe it in our body as concrete reality.”

5. Japanese children, television,
cellphone and videogames
● A typical middle school or high school students arrives home from school at
around 4:00pm, has a quick snack and attends cram school classes, often three
times a week from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. Sometimes students have cram school
classes Saturday and all day Sunday too.
● Elementary school kids are usually very busy with activities two or three days a
week after school Girl usually take ballet, dance or piano. Boys play baseball
or do karate. Both boys and girls take English, calligraphy, arithmetic or
swimming lessons.
● Japanese kids watch as much television as American kids: 2.7 hours a day.
● Japanese kids play a lot of video games. According to one survey 90 percent of
kids age 10 to 14 own video games.
● It is not uncommon to see nursery-school-age children sitting alone playing a
game even when they are in park.
● According to 2008 government statistics 31 percent of primary school students
carry cell phones.

6. Independent Children in Japan
● Is not unusual for 6-year-olds to take bus trips by themselves across the country
to their grandparents house and 9-year-old girls to take trains by themselves to
visit theme parks.
● First graders in Tokyo often navigate their way to schools—taking public buses,
making several subway changes, crossing busy streets and walking on crowded
sidewalks—by themselves. Parents are not allowed to drive their children to school
to prevent traffic jams in front of the school.
● Before the children begin commuting by themselves they are given several trial
runs accompanied by their mothers.
● About five or six times a year a child is kidnaped for ransom. As a precaution
parents give their children cell phones and have high-tech tracking devices placed
in their clothing or belongings.
● The phone company NTT offers a service in which children carry a receiver and
their parents can call a number at anytime and get a map on their cell phone or
computer, showing child's location at that moment.
● Middle school students typically receive a weekly allowance of around ¥3,000
while high school students typically get ¥6,000.