Q.What kind of thoughts do people have about children’s voices in neighborhood?

 Q1. What kind of thoughts do people have about children’s voices in neighborhood?

 A1.Firstly, I would like to write about my personal opinion on this question from my own experience. I would like to introduce you to some of the housing complexes I have lived in.

①    2016~2018. I had lived in a family house since I was born, but when my whole family moved to the city, it was the first time I had to live in collective housing. As the building was meant to be a temporary residence for our family, the structure of the building was not very good and the sound from the floor upstairs was very loud and reverberating on a daily basis. I'm not a very sound-sensitive person, so I didn't pay much attention to it, but in this condominium, there were papers regularly posted complaining about children's noises and footsteps. The apartment building was mainly a building with rental contracts and rents were not very high.

②    2018~2022. Our family left our temporary flat and moved to a more solidly built housing complex. This is a condominium for sale and my family still lives there. There are many families in these flat, but unlike the previous one, I have not seen any complaint papers posted up. Furthermore, the condominium has a residents' association where the residents manage their own affairs and live under rules set by all residents. Perhaps because of this, there was interaction between residents and frequent opportunities to converse with elderly neighbors and children.

③    2022~now. I started living on my own when I entered university. I currently live in an apartment, with a park in front of my place and a kindergarten right next door. In addition, there is a junior high school located a short walk from the apartment, so the sound of children walking to and from school can often be heard. The entire community is very supportive of childcare, so I have not heard of any problems with the noise of children's voices.

Have you noticed anything from what I have described above? This is just my personal opinion, but I think that the higher the rent price, the higher the residents' morale tends to be. In addition, interacting with children who live in the same apartment building may have the effect of making residents feel closer to the children and more tolerant of the sounds children make. In fact, in the condominiums where many complaints were received, the residents had little relationship with each other and hardly even knew who lived there. Lastly, it seems to me that areas with many families and children tend to be more forgiving of sounds made by children by nature.

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 Q2. Is there any organization that works on noise made by children?

 A2. I did as much research as I could, but at present I have not been able to find any organizations that specialize in dealing with the issue of children's noise. However, I would like to introduce an organization that is the closest to what we are looking for at this point in time.

【INCE-Japan 公益社団法人 日本騒音制御工学会(The Noise Control Engineering Society of Japan), 社会貢献部会(Social Contribution Committee)】

Their main activities.

①    Delivery training on noise, vibration, low-frequency sound, etc.

・Experts will visit local governments and other organizations to give lectures on topics related to familiar laws, measurement, evaluation, and countermeasures.

②    Environmental education.

・Experts will visit schools and other facilities to give interesting lessons on the interest of listening to sounds, such as creating sound maps and listening to familiar sounds.

③    Participation in environment-related events

・The event will feature panel displays, sound listening experiences, sound experiments, a loud voice contest, crafts for children, and more.

For further information, you can check the organization's website at this link. (https://www.ince-j.or.jp/social_contributions). By the way, you should know that this organization is a public interest incorporated association, which is different from a non-profit organization. If you want to check if an organization is official, you can do a search on the official information website of the public benefit corporation to find out. The organizations mentioned in this section have been verified to be well established and official in their existence, so if you want to contact them, do not worry!

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 Q3. What happens to the child's parents if the noise complaint resident wins the trial?

 A3.　We will consider how a parent as a defendant may be required to respond to a situation from examples in which the plaintiff won a trial.

①    A court case was filed regarding the noise caused by the upstairs child (3~4 years old at the time) running, jumping and bouncing in the hallway.

→The defendant was ordered to pay 300,000 yen in compensation.

②    A court case was filed against a child (of kindergarten age) on the upper floor for jumping and running around in the room.

→The defendant was demanded an order to stop the noise, compensation in the amount of 300,000 yen, the plaintiff's medical expenses, and noise measurement costs.

　These two examples show that if the child's parents lose the case, they could be charged a large sum of money. In the latter instance, an injunction against noise was sought, but in practice it is rare for such a decision to be reached because it is considered difficult to intentionally stop the sounds and voices made by children.

published by Galina

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References and sources:

・https://www.ince-j.or.jp/social_contributions　INCE-Japan, accessed in July14

・https://www.koeki-info.go.jp/　国・都道府県公式公益法人行政総合情報サイト,National and Prefectural Official Public Interest Incorporated Administrative General Information Site, accessed in July15

・https://mansionbengo.jp/seikatsu/souon-kodomo　弁護士によるマンション管理ガイド 根岸透, Lawyer's Guide to Condominium Management Negisi Toru, published in 2021 April 3, accessed in July14