By+Selena+Hoy

Its a common sight on Japanese mass transit： Children troop through train cars，1 singly or in small groups， looking for seats. They wear knee socks， polished patent-leather shoes， and plaid jumpers， with wide-brimmed hats fastened under the chin and train passes pinned to their backpacks.2 The kids are as young as six or seven， on their way to and from school， and there is nary a guardian in sight.3

A popular television show called Hajimete no Otsukai， or My First Errand， features children as young as two or three being sent out to do a task for their family.4 As they tentatively make their way to the greengrocer or bakery， their progress is secretly filmed by a camera crew.5 The show has been running for more than 25 years.

KaKaito， a 12-year-old in Tokyo， has been riding the train by himself between the homes of his parents， who share his custody6， since he was nine. “At first I was a little worried，” he admits， “whether I could ride the train alone. But only a little worried.” Now， he says， its easy. His parents were apprehensive7 at first， too， but they went ahead because they felt he was old enough， and lots of other kids were doing it safely.

“Honestly， what I remember thinking at the time is， the trains are safe and on time and easy to navigate8， and hes a smart kid，”Kaitos stepmother says. “I took the trains on my own when I was younger than him in Tokyo，” She recalls. “We didnt have cellphones back in my day， but I still managed to go from point A to point B on the train. If he gets lost， he can call us.”

What accounts for9 this unusual degree of independence？ Not self-sufficiency， in fact， but “group reliance，” according to Dwayne Dixon， a cultural anthropologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth.10 “[Japanese] kids learn early on that， ideally， any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others，” he says.

This assumption is reinforced at school，11 where children take turns cleaning and serving lunch instead of relying on staff to perform such duties. This “distributes labor across various shoulders and rotates expectations，12 while also teaching everyone what it takes to clean a toilet， for instance，”Dixon says.

Taking responsibility for shared spaces means that children have pride of ownership and understand in a concrete way the consequences of making a mess， since theyll have to clean it up themselves.13 This ethic14 extends to public space more broadly （one reason Japanese streets are generally so clean）. A child out in public knows he can rely on the group to help in an emergency.

Japan has a very low crime rate， which is surely a key reason parents feel confident about sending their kids out alone. But small-scaled urban spaces and a culture of walking and transit use also foster safety and， perhaps just as important， the perception of safety.15

“Public space is scaled so much better—old， human-sized spaces that also control flow and speed，”16 Dixon notes. In Japanese cities， people are accustomed to walking everywhere， and public transportation trumps car culture；17 in Tokyo， half of all trips are made on rail or bus， and a quarter on foot. Drivers are used to sharing the road and yielding to pedestrians and cyclists.18

Kaitos stepmother says she wouldnt let a nine-year-old ride the subway alone in London or New York—just in Tokyo. Thats not to say the Tokyo subway is risk-free. The persistent problem of women and girls being groped， for example， led to the introduction of women-only cars on select lines starting in 2000.19 Still， many city children continue to take the train to school and run errands in their neighborhood without close supervision20.

By giving them this freedom， parents are placing significant trust not only in their kids， but in the whole community. “Plenty of kids across the world are self-sufficient，” Dixon observes. “But the thing that I suspect Westerners are intrigued by [in Japan] is the sense of trust and cooperation that occurs， often unspoken or unsolicited.”21

1. mass transit： 公共交通；troop： 成群結(jié)隊(duì)地走。

2. knee sock： 半筒襪，及膝襪；polished： 擦亮的；patent-leather： 漆皮；plaid： 帶格子圖案的；jumper： 套頭毛衫；widebrimmed： 寬邊的；train pass： 火車通行證；pin to： 固定，別在……上。

3. nary：〈口〉（通常后接a或an）一個(gè)也沒有的；guardian： 監(jiān)護(hù)人。

4. errand： 差事，節(jié)目名稱“My First Errand”的意思是“我第一次上街買東西”；feature： v. 由……主演。

5. tentatively： 嘗試性地；greengrocer： 蔬菜水果商販；film： v. 拍攝；camera crew： 攝制組。

6. custody： 撫養(yǎng)權(quán)。

7. apprehensive： 擔(dān)心的，恐懼的。

8. navigate： 導(dǎo)航，引路。

9. account for： 解釋，說明……的原因。

10. self-sufficiency： 自給自足，自我滿足；group reliance： 團(tuán)體依靠；anthropologist： 人類學(xué)家；doctoral dissertation： 博士論文。這里是說日本小孩的這種獨(dú)立并非出于自身，而是由于全社會的保護(hù)。

11. assumption： 假設(shè)；reinforce： 強(qiáng)化。

12. 這給每個(gè)孩子都分了工，讓他們輪換著完成任務(wù)。distribute： 分配；rotate： 輪換。

13. 在共享空間里承擔(dān)起責(zé)任意味著孩子有一種主人翁的自豪感，而且也清楚地知道把事情搞砸的后果，因?yàn)樗麄儽仨氉约菏帐皻埦?。concrete： 具體的，確實(shí)的。

14. ethic： 道德規(guī)范。

15. 但是城市區(qū)域小、人們傾向于步行以及習(xí)慣利用公共交通出行也增加了安全度，或者同樣重要的，增強(qiáng)了人們的安全感。foster： 培養(yǎng)，促進(jìn)；perception： 知覺，感受。

16.（日本）公共空間的大小也更為合適——那些年頭已久的、只能容納行人的區(qū)域也控制住了交通流速。scale： v. 改變……的大小。

17. be accustomed to： 習(xí)慣于；trump： 勝過，這里指公共交通工具比私家車多。

18. yield to： 屈從于，讓步于，這里指讓路；pedestrian： 行人；cyclist： 騎自行車的人。

19. persistent： 反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的；grope： 猥褻，摸；women-only car： 女性專用車廂，是為了保護(hù)女性不受性騷擾；select line： 專線，專列。

20. close supervision： 密切監(jiān)督，嚴(yán)密監(jiān)護(hù)。

21. suspect： 猜想；intrigue： 使好奇，使感興趣；unsolicited： 主動(dòng)提供的。

閱讀感評

“自己走路去上學(xué)”，這在上世紀(jì)七八十年代的中國是再正常不過的事了。記得我的小學(xué)離家至少有兩三站的距離，那個(gè)時(shí)代小地方?jīng)]有什么公交，除了第一天由我爸爸陪同步行去上學(xué)外，直至畢業(yè)我都是自己走著去的。到了中學(xué)，離家距離也不近，地形環(huán)境還更復(fù)雜些，記得須沿著沒有護(hù)欄的河堤走一段，再跨過一座同樣沒有欄桿的石橋，也從未有家人接送。但三十余年后的今天，小學(xué)生獨(dú)自去上學(xué)，不用說在大城市，即便在小城鎮(zhèn)，恐怕也已基本絕跡，甚至還有中學(xué)生每天需要人接送。

因此，當(dāng)今六七歲的日本孩子居然還能像我們那代人一樣獨(dú)自走著去上學(xué)，而且成為日本街頭常見的一景，就讓人感到驚訝了。當(dāng)然，這里的“走著（walk）”未必就是完全徒步，更多的情況可能是兩頭幾百米步行，中間更長的路須搭乘公交或城鐵等。筆者今年五月份在日本第二大城市大阪的街頭，就常看見清晨有許多學(xué)生自己或步行或騎車去上學(xué)，下雨天也是如此。文章中說日本兩三歲的小孩有時(shí)還被家人派去水果蔬菜店或面包房買東西，這讓我想起自己小時(shí)候也曾為父母干過類似的事情，尤其是在他們做飯燒菜的當(dāng)兒常被差到街上打醬油。文中還提到，東京一個(gè)12歲的離異家庭的孩子，從九歲起就能自己坐火車來往于父親與母親家，更是讓人覺得有些不可思議。

對于日本孩子的這種“孤膽英雄”作風(fēng)，我們往往會歸結(jié)于其家庭、學(xué)校教育中對于其獨(dú)立性的培養(yǎng)。然而本文卻說，“這種超常獨(dú)立程度的來由，事實(shí)上并非出于自足（self-sufficiency），而是因?yàn)橛袌F(tuán)體依靠（group reliance）”。也就是說，并非因?yàn)槿毡竞⒆拥哪芰Τ瑥?qiáng)，而是有集體這座大靠山讓其無所畏懼。中國傳統(tǒng)上也是講求集體精神輕個(gè)人主義的，但在實(shí)踐中卻幾乎倒了個(gè)個(gè)兒。文章說，日本孩子從小就知道，社會里的任何一個(gè)成員都能被招來為他人服務(wù)或幫助他人。這種觀念是“為共同的空間承擔(dān)責(zé)任”（taking responsibility for shared spaces），通過他們在學(xué)校里參與打掃、幫助供應(yīng)午餐等輪換活動(dòng)逐漸養(yǎng)成。筆者想起，前些年在上海、廣州等一些大城市的火車站，向路人問路要先交錢，說是“有償問詢服務(wù)”。后來，我們的社會又流行起“不同陌生人交談”的“文化”，尤其是婦女與兒童要特別小心。在這樣的公共空間里行走，投過來的都是貪婪與不信任的眼光，當(dāng)然是沒有什么安全感的。誠然，世界各地有獨(dú)立能力的孩子有的是，但日本父母如此放心讓孩子獨(dú)自在城市里行走，恐怕很大程度上確實(shí)是出于某種心照不宣的集體信任感與社會幫扶度，也就是原文中所說的“group reliance”。

文章中還提到，營造安全環(huán)境，除了“犯罪率低”外，還需有一些必備的“硬件”與“軟件”，如日本的“小規(guī)模的城市空間”（small-scaled urban spaces）與“徒步與采用公共交通的文化”（a culture of walking and transit use）。據(jù)筆者理解，前者指的是城市的公共空間設(shè)計(jì)非常人性化，也就是說街道不會太寬，所有路口都設(shè)置便于行人優(yōu)先通行的標(biāo)志。這不僅充分考慮到了人流與車流的速度，還讓機(jī)動(dòng)車駕駛者習(xí)慣與行人及騎行者分享道路或者給后者讓道，而非以高人一等的姿態(tài)與后者搶道甚至逼迫后者為其讓道，至少這些都給人以安全感。后者指的是日本人已把步行以及使用公共交通當(dāng)做生活的一部分和出行的首選。

反觀我們周邊的情形，每周五下午及周日傍晚，北京一些學(xué)校周邊一公里左右的范圍內(nèi)總是擠滿了車，為的是接孩子回家過周末及送孩子來上學(xué)。筆者的幾位中年女性同事都苦于沒時(shí)間好好備課做學(xué)問，原因竟都是得陪著孩子上各種培訓(xùn)班。這些父母寧可忍受交通擁堵、無處合法停車的種種麻煩，也要接送陪伴孩子。這一方面是父母愛的奉獻(xiàn)，另一方面也體現(xiàn)了一種無奈心理，即對于獨(dú)自行動(dòng)的孩子安全的恐懼。其中一部分原因是可以理解的，但我們似乎也不應(yīng)忘記這樣一個(gè)道理：“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”（我們唯一需要恐懼的是恐懼本身）——富蘭克林·羅斯福。