letter from Japan
One of my favourite things about the city of Sapporo is how safe it is for children.
As soon as they start primary school (aged six) children walk to and from school by themselves, and go out to the park by themselves. Of course there are incidents, and children are equipped to recognise and get away from potentially dangerous adults, but overall children have a lot of freedom.
Despite being a small church, when we run kids’ outreach events at church we sometimes get 30 or 40 non-church children. Younger children come with their parents, but most primary school children just come by themselves (without need for permission slips!).
