Q. What are the governmental responses to the children's noise issues in Japan?

  Q. What are the governmental responses to the noise issues made by children or educational facilities in Japan? Do we have a law related to the issue?


 As you know, Japan is one of the countries which has an abrupt declining birthrate and an aging population. Due to this condition, Japanese government constantly has meetings to discuss how to improve child’s living environment. In this part of the blog, we would like to think about the issue from a political perspective.

 

 In April 2023, Cabinet Office held Children's Future Strategic Council (子供未来戦略会議-Kodomo Mirai Senryaku Kaigi) for the second time. This is a setting to discuss policies and their financial resources to realize the improvement of the birthrate. This time, the need for a law that says” children's voices are not noise" was the topic of discussion. As an example, it was mentioned that Germany revised a law in 2011, and the new law states that children's voices are not noise that affects the environment. In Germany, since the 1970s, residents in the neighborhood have been filing lawsuits against noise from child day care facilities, demanding compensation for mental and physical damages. And finally, in 2005, an example of a court decision leading to the abolition of the facility became a controversial issue in society. In Japan, there have been also cases where plans to build parks and daycare centers have faced difficulties due to concerning of neighborhood residents about the noise of children. Prime Minister Kishida, in his response, expressed his agreement to the law, saying, "We must share an awareness of the problem and change our minds about the children's noise issues.”

 

 On the other hand, Tokyo Metropolitan Government has already established an ordinance with the content mentioned above several years ago.

In March 2015, the Tokyo Metropolitan Council adopted a proposal to exclude "children's voices" from the numerical regulations of the Tokyo Metropolitan Noise Ordinance. It means that if there is a legal case regarding the voices of children and the adults supervising them, various factors are generally considered, but especially the "level of damage" and the "response of the accused" are more important than the specific volume of the noise. 


 According to information we mentioned above, it is expected that the government, which wants to make the country easier to raise children in order to tackle the declining birth rate, will set up a legal system that gives families and educational facilities preferential treatment. 




Published by Galina

__________________________

References:

https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/246934 東京新聞 Tokyo Web, published in April 29, accesed July 10
https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/64622 東洋経済　Toyo Kezai Online, published 2015 March 30, accesed July 10

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