03/11/2025
In Japan, every adult can correct any child.
Because every child is everyone’s responsibility.
And if a child does something wrong and you don’t intervene…
then you are the irresponsible one.
It’s a simple, yet profound principle.
It’s called the sense of tribe.
It means there is no such thing as “my children” or “your children.”
There are our children.
Because raising a person is a collective task, not a private matter.
That’s why in Japan it’s normal for a stranger to scold a child in the street,
for an elderly lady to correct a little one on the train,
for a shop clerk to politely ask a kid not to touch everything.
And they don’t do it arrogantly.
They do it with respect, with gentleness.
Because that’s how the sense of living together is passed on:
not through control, but through care.
This mindset is reflected in every daily act:
no one throws trash on the ground,
public bathrooms are left clean,
in schools, children clean their classrooms and serve lunch to their classmates.
Not because they have to, but because it’s the right thing to do.
They think of those who come after.
They move through the world as if it also belongs to others, not just to themselves.
Respect, there, is not a rule.
It’s a shared responsibility.
It’s the art of being part of something greater than oneself.
And perhaps, if we too learned to see other people’s children as a little bit our own…
our cities would be quieter,
our streets cleaner,
and our hearts kinder.