Common Sense.
Mothers where I come from pound that stuff into their kids’ heads. With a baseball bat if necessary.
The Great State of California has strict “child endangerment” laws – bad/stupid/ignorant parents can be sent to jail for putting their kids in harm’s way.
Japan, the country with the amazing shrinking population, you would think treasures and protects its children.
As John Belushi always used to say, “But, noooooo!”
* Mother leaves kid in car to play pachinko. Kid asphyxiates. Mother wins box of Hello Kitty Pocky.
* Father drives car wearing seat belt (there’s a law). Kid is bouncing around between seats. Sudden stop, kid does Superman impersonation through windshield.
* Kids have to go to juku cram schools after school. Walk home alone at night. Kids get murdered and crammed into shallow graves.
I wish I was making this stuff up but you see and hear stories like this almost every day in the Japanese media.
Sometimes I wish I hadn’t studied Japanese so hard.
知らぬが仏 (shiranu ga hotoke) = ignorance is bliss.
