Children bouncing around loose in moving cars

[doudesuka]

Why isn't there any enforcement on non-use of child seats in Japan?
Many times I see small children being let free to bop around in cars while the car is in motion.
Don't these parents have any common sense? It makes me cringe when I see it. I have asked a Japanese friend why they don't use car seats. The excuse is that it's too much work to buckle them in or the seats are too expensive. It couldn't be more expensive than their gucci wallets . I don't understand the mentality.
I know there is a campaign to recommend usage but there is no enforcement. I read that Japanese treasure their children and I am sure there are some that do. But, I see a bunch of negligent ones. I wish some of these people had enough of sense to look at the preventative measures of buckling their children for safety and preservation to enjoy them and love them.

[kirei_na_me]

This is one thing that really concerns me. The Japanese that I know here all have pretty much that same excuse that the child seats are way too expensive in Japan. That is no excuse in my book. Like you say, they have money to spend on their bags and their cell phones, but not a carseat. The ones I know can't even understand why using a carseat is a law in this country. One day when my (Japanese) friend, her mother, and her tiny 10 month old daughter were coming back home from a 2 hour trip, her mother took the baby out of the seat and held her the whole way home. Her reason, just because "the poor baby was crying". I was not very understanding. My thinking was like, "so, you'd rather have her go flying through the windshield?" I'm sure that it happened many more times, but I just wasn't aware. Anyway, yes, the attitude towards that kind of thing is kind of annoying, to say the least...

[doudesuka]

Yeah, you wouldn't believe this. One day my husband and I were behind this sports car with a grandfather and a 18 month old. The child was standing in the front seat with his hands out the window. The grandfather was steering the car very slowly while holding the child's right hand. It was totally crazy.

I don't understand their attitude. It's amazing.
Do they also think leaving a child in a car unsupervised is o.k.?
It happens quite frequently where I live. Matter of fact this summer a father left his one year old in a car at night while he was playing pachinko. The child woke up and was screaming.
Unfortunately a man who was parked next to the car decided he couldn't handle it anymore. Instead of taking the child in the Pachink Parlor, he went down the road and threw the child in a river. That is just gross neglect and total lack of human worth on both parties. Nothing happened to the father but the man who killed the baby was charged. It has happened many times before.
Very sad!

[doudesuka]

My husband lived in the States for 10 years since he was 18 yrs. old. He graduated from WVU. Since he has returned to Japan, he has been very disappointed in the path that Japan has been going. He doesn't relate too well to his fellow Japanese. His family thinks he is strange. I think it's more intimidation than anything. He has an American's mentality. We do want to return to the states but the economy sucks here too. Too much of a risk now. I like Japan but I would move back if there was a promising job for him.

[budd]

i have seen women and men roaring downhill on bicycles without a helmet
it is my observation that people over there think about life and death (therefore fate) differently
that is certainly a depressing story about the drowned child -- would like a link to view, thanks!

[doudesuka]

Budd, yes you are right but, down in Florida, some biker's were making it a big deal to ride without helmets. So, they have been doing that for a few years now. It is absolutely crazy not to wear a helmet no matter your ideas on freedom to bust your head if you want. I can only think of humpty dumpty fell off his bike.


I guess their views are much different than ours but still people are hurt needlessly.

[doudesuka]

Budd, I looked for the story but can't find it now. I read it on the Japantoday site earlier. Maybe it was April or May that it happened. Check out the Mainichi News online then search for babies left in cars. There might be a story or two. Good Luck!

[jeisan]

i dont wear a helmet when i ride a bike, never did as a kid either. though neither now or then did i really have to compete with cars for space, i rode off road where cars didnt go, in which case i could see the use in that, since getting whacked by 3000 pounds of metal tends to hurt abit. generally speaking bikes dont go that fast and most of the injury will be to your hands and legs when crashing, i speak from experience. of all the injuries i sustained while riding and jumping my bmx none of them were to my head. sprained wrists and ankles, road rash, cuts, scrapes and bruises yeah sure, but never a head injury. even when i joined the over the bars club for the millionth time going 50mph down a hill or having to bail off my bike 15 feet in the air because i rotated too much. the only time ive injured head was when i got a concussion ice skating. ive seen people literaly crack their skulls falling out of lawn chairs, that doesnt mean that all lawn chair sitters should wear a helmet though...

[doudesuka]

Well, I am glad that you are still here. Maybe you are more skilled and lucky. But, these people ride in traffic and you can't control what could happen or other's actions on the road. How many people fall out of lawn chairs? I don't think too many.
I think if people want to risk their lives like that, fine!
But, I don't like seeing children loose in moving cars.
I also don't like seeing children being left in cars either.
That BMXing looks like a lot of fun.
I used to go somewhere with some friends in Tokyo. The husband used to race flat track and he was always winning.
It was a family event. I saw many children at age 3 and up on their little bikes. They all had helmets on. They would be there the whole weekend. They would also race the crotch rockets on a track too. You would probably like it because the girls wore short shorts and mid driff blouses.

[jeisan]

*shrug* maybe i am more skilled and lucky. i totally agree with you about the carseats and parents leaving their kids in the car to go screw off. people that are that irresponsible shouldnt be allowed to have kids. once you become a parent you need to grow up and be a responsible person because its not only yourself that you have to worry about anymore. but im young and not a parent so i can still be reckless with myself if i so choose. ive never been on a crotch rocket before, i used to ride a dirt motorcycle though, theres alot of dirt in the desert where i grew up i always wore a helmet and the rest of the gear for that thing though. i guess i just dont view a bicycle as a dangerous thing to be riding on.

[doudesuka]

Enjoy your freedom and have fun!

[Kathie Hawkins]

Yeah, I drive a car as if I was flying a airplane. "If anything CAN go wrong it WILL, & at the WORST possible time". If the car's moving & there're people in it, they should be buckled up. You may violate humanity's laws & get away with it, but you'll never violate nature's laws & get away with it. If you're going in direction D at velocity V & hit something, you better have some protection or you'll go right through windshield W. No human being in the world has arm muscles strong enough to hold a child in their lap tightly enough to prevent them from flying through the dashboard in a crash. I don't have all the numbers & statistics. but above a certain speed, even if your hands were handcuffed together, your hands'd be torn off at the wrists. Inertia causes a object's weight to increase according to its foreward velocity. "Every object at rest tends to remain at rest & every object in motion tends to remain in motion". It only takes a few seconds to buckle a seat belt, but grief can take a lifetime. As far as carseats being too expensive, how much do they consider their children's lives to be worth? You can't put a price on a person's life, & every person only gets issued one life per lifetime.

[doudesuka]

Tell me about it Harajuku girl. My in-laws don't like it when we refuse to let our nephew, 3 ride in our car without a seatbelt.
Now, his mother has one in their car but when we go as a family. He likes to ride with us. My husband refuses to let him ride.
They can't seem to understand our point of view.
I don't want his death on my hands eventhough it wouldn't be my fault in the accident. It would still kill me if that happened.
I guess they believe in the fate thing but I also think they never think about what could happen and prevent it . They have a delayed thinking process or something. I have seen many dangerous practices and amazed at the lack of prevention
measures.:sad:

[budd]

"i have seen [japanese] women and men roaring downhill on bicycles without a helmet"
"I guess they believe in the fate thing but I also think they never think about what could happen and prevent it . They have a delayed thinking process or something. I have seen many dangerous practices and amazed at the lack of prevention"
yeh. that's what i was trying to touch on

[doudesuka]

It has to be fate! We have been used to so many safety precautions and that's on the forefront of our minds, here it's just a different mentality. At least, I see the school kids wearing helmets.

[Maciamo]

Japanese probably don't have the same notion of "precautions" than in the West. Not only is there no law about child seats or cyclists wearing a helmet, but people in the back of a car don't have to attach their seat belts (and in most taxi I have sat in, I couldn't find them at all), as if it was less dangerous to sit in the back than in the front when there is an accident.

I see everyday mothers with 2 or 3 children on their bicycle, not even attached, just in the "shopping basket". I thought it was only in developping countries that all the family rode the same bicycle or scooter because they couldn't afford more than one. The worst is that their main excuse for security (child seats, helmets...) is financial. Could you believe that in Japan ?

Only (hobby) racing cyclists wear helmets in Japan. It's like a fashion. They have the expensive racing bike, the tight-fitting fluo pink and yellow clothes and the assorted helmet. They need it all together. If they have an ordinary bike or aren't out for the whole day, they will never wear a helmet. In some Western countries it's a compulsory to wear one. In Japan it's related to fashion.

What's funny (or sad) in all this is that Japanese fear some much travelling abroad and take some many precautions when they do. It's not because criminality is lower in Japan than traffic accident occur less ! I've been laughed at several times because I insisted on wearing my seat belt for a short drive. It's just a habit... but Japanese apparently don't have it as well.

[jeisan]

in texas you dont have to wear as seatbelt in the back seat of a vehichle, on the people in the front are required and they arent if you have a certain class of truck even. also i always wondered why school buses dont have seat belts.

[doudesuka]

I still don't understand about school buses in America.
Nice points Maciamo.

[budd]

"It's like a fashion. They have the expensive racing bike, the tight-fitting fluo pink and yellow clothes and the assorted helmet. They need it all together. If they have an ordinary bike or aren't out for the whole day, they will never wear a helmet. In some Western countries it's a compulsory to wear one. In Japan it's related to fashion."
hahaha! too true!

"What's funny (or sad) in all this is that Japanese fear some much travelling abroad and take some many precautions when they do."
whatchu talking bout willis! unhunh! saw people sitting in cars wearing masks... haha

[kirei_na_me]

Originally posted by budd
whatchu talking bout willis! unhunh! saw people sitting in cars wearing masks... haha

Dangerous germs up ahead!!! Maybe they just want to look like Michael Jackson while riding in their cars...

[doudesuka]

O.K. I am naive here! What's up with the masks?

[jeisan]

wear masks to protect from s.a.r.s. respratory virus, can be fatal

[kirei_na_me]

Well, not only SARS. It seems Japanese people have been wearing those masks for years before SARS came along. I even ordered some from the Japanese store to use when I had a bad cold so I wouldn't spread it to the kids. Anyway, they wear them to protect themselves from or to prevent spreading germs. They remind me of the masks that Michael Jackson used to wear all the time.

[Maciamo]

I've never met any Japanese wearing mask for SARS. Did you know there hasn't been a single case of SARS in Japan ? What I have seen is foreigner (tourist) in Japan who came during the SARS period and couldn't leave their mask even in restaurants for fear of getting SARS as they were in Asia

[budd]

there was one case... he was from taiwan i believe?
but i definitely saw a few (about three or four) drivers inside different cars -- with the windows rolled up -- wearing masks. wish i had gotten pictures now...
me also remember that i have been over there six times, but last May was the first that i had flown BACK in business class
then again, that may been due to mitigating circumstances i will mention maybe in the future
the cleaning peole in dorms/hotels/ryokans wear them as well, but that may be becasue we smell so different...