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Japan Neighborhood
Beyond the family, the next group to which children are
introduced is the neighborhood. Although the loose,
informal groups
of children who wandered through villages of the past have
no
counterpart in contemporary heavily trafficked city
streets,
neighborhood playgrounds and the grounds of local shrines
and
temples are sites where young children, accompanied by
mothers,
begin to learn to get along with others.
Among neighbors, there is great concern for face. In
old urban
neighborhoods or rural villages, families may have been
neighbors
for generations and thus expect relationships of
assistance and
cooperation to continue into the future. In newer company
housing,
neighbors represent both competition and stress at the
workplace,
which cannot be expressed. Extra care is taken to maintain
proper
relations while maximizing family privacy. Participation
in
neighborhood activities is not mandatory, but
nonparticipants might
lose face. If a family plans to stay in an area, people
feel strong
pressures to participate in public projects such as
neighborhood
cleanups or seasonal festivals. Concern for the family's
reputation
is real because background checks for marriage and
employment might
include asking neighbors their opinions about a family.
More
positively, neighbors become uchi for certain
purposes, such
as local merchants providing personal services, physicians
responding to calls for minor ailments and emergency
treatment, and
neighbors taking care of children while their mother goes
out.
People who work in the neighborhood where they live
often have
a different attitude from those who spend most of their
waking
hours at distant workplaces, creating differences in
character
between the central city and the suburbs. Central city
areas,
dominated by the old middle class of artisans, merchants,
and small
business owners, generally have more active neighborhood
associations and other local groups, such as merchant
associations
and shrine associations. The neighborhood association's
activities
include public sanitation and health, volunteer
firefighting,
disaster preparedness, crime prevention, information
exchange, and
recreational activities, particularly for children and the
elderly.
In new urban or suburban developments, local governments
might take
a more active role in performing these functions. In
neighborhoods
with mixtures of new and old middle-class residents, it is
people
with the time and interest, most likely those with
businesses in
the area, who are active in neighborhood affairs. The
activities of
women and children, however, might cut across such class
distinctions. The emphasis on good relations with
neighbors helps
counteract the potential depersonalization of urban
living. Working
together on community projects, exchanging information,
and
cooperating in community rituals, such as festivals, helps
maintain
a sense of community.
The consequences of economic growth are examined more
closely
by consumers, who by 1980s began to demand higher-quality
social
services, more libraries and cultural centers, greater
access to
sports facilities, and more parkland. Attention is
increasingly
focused on the adverse effects of urban life on families:
modern
children are seen as more demanding and less disciplined
than their
forebears, who had experienced war and poverty.
Despite these problems, urban life is much safer and
more
convenient than in many other countries. In contrast to
most
industrialized nations, urban crime rates are declining.
The
streets of Tokyo are safe even at night, and a public
campaign is
more likely to urge residents to lock their doors than to
suggest
they install deadbolts. Public transportation is congested
but
convenient, clean, punctual, and relatively inexpensive
(see
Transportation and Telecommunications
, ch. 4). Complaints are
heard,
however, that railroad station parking lots are too small
to
accommodate all commuter bicycles. In urban areas, houses
are close
together; but at the same time, shops are close by, and
housewives
can easily purchase fresh vegetables and fish daily. Urban
life is
made more attractive for many by a wide variety of
cultural and
sports activities, including the symphony orchestra,
theater, sumo,
professional baseball, museums, and art galleries
(see The Arts
, ch. 3).
Data as of January 1994
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