Ban of Leaving Kids Home Alone Opposed

In American comedy film Home Alone, an eight-year-old boy Kevin successfully drove back the robbers with wit and strategic pranks. Realizing no Kevin in real world or not, Liberal Democratic Party caucus in Saitama Prefectural Assembly dismissed their proposal of a revised ordinance which would ban leaving a kid in third grade or younger home alone. Public opposition prevented the assembly passing an unrealistic ordinance from the viewpoints of ordinary families raising kids. The trouble revealed an innocence of a local assembly on the issues of child abuse.

Saitama prefectural assembly passed an ordinance for prohibiting abuse against child, aged persons or the handicaped in 2019, which required the local governments and public organizations to cooperate each other. LDP caucus submitted revised one earlier this month, after some serious abuse, such as leaving a child in a parking car, were reported. The draft defines leaving child in third degree or younger home alone as abuse, except a guardian can immediately reach the child.

 

As soon as a committee in the assembly passed the ordinance, a number of parents in Saitama strongly opposed the move and demanded to throw it away. For the parents who have daily job or single parents, for example, the definition was too obscure to raise their children without violating the ordinance. The parents’ and teachers’ association in Saitama sent the prefectural government their opinion against it and tens of thousands of signatures were collected through internet.

 

The LDP caucus seems to be not familiar with the actual situation of the family raising children. Not only leaving a child home alone, but letting a child play alone in the park or going school and coming back home with friends also be categorized as abuse in the ordinance. “The definition of the abuse is too strict to have ordinary life,” or “The assembly members have not sufficiently listened to our voices,” were the complaints of the parents.

 

According to the report of Tokyo Shimbun, only three out of fifty-eight members of LDP caucus were women. It is possible that this gender gap might have affected the conclusion of the caucus, as long as raising children is still mainly owed by women in reality. Concerning negative effect on national politics, some Diet member of LDP or Komeito took distance from the attitude of LDP caucus in Saitama Prefectural Assembly.

 

It is unusual that a decision is overturned by public opinions in such a complete manner, the action which represents local democracy. If the assembly members are successful in improving the policy for preventing brutal abuses, this revision of revised ordinance will be highly evaluated.

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