Hajimete no Otsukai

I admit that I do not watch much Japanese TV, but it's a shame I had to learn of this show through the Guardian. Hajimete no Otsukai ("First Errand") has been aired since the early 1990s. It follows small children as young as two years who are sent on their first errand. Hajimete no Otsukai is now available on Netflix.

Unfortunately, the initial explanation is even more confusing than Netflix's aggressive push. Old Enough is the wildly popular Japanese show Hajimete no Otsukai (My First Errand), an entertainment documentary show where toddlers are sent out into the world completely alone, to go shopping or navigate public transport. In Japan, Old Enough has been airing for 30 years, with two three-hour shows broadcast each year. When it airs, a fifth of all Japanese viewers tune in. It's a true phenomenon. The length between episodes can be explained by the sheer level of preparation that goes into each task. All the errand routes are inspected by parents and production staff, to check for dangerous roads or "suspicious persons". The children are chosen after a laborious selection process, the camera crew and safety team are given hiding places so the kids won't spot them and all the local neighbours are informed of the task, so as not to freak out and call the police when they see a four-year-old wandering aimlessly through the streets.

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We've been watching this for a few years now. Sometimes they'll show the kids all grown up. Or even do this with the kids of the original kids.

> the camera crew and safety team are given hiding places so the kids won't spot them
This part isn't true. The camera crew are a bunch of wandering ojisan that you can't miss. But the kids are only like 3 or 4 so they don't really seem to be concerned about all of the weird guys running after them with "hidden" cameras.

I've been seeing this clickbait article bandied about on social media. I hadn't clicked it before now, because the title is so infuriatingly misleading that the comments were outright gross. The decision to rename it "Old Enough" is probably the most questionable thing about this story.

I think I saw an episode when I was last in country in 2019, and thought it was amazing. They also went back and revisited some of the original kids; it was a really great story. The little kids were totally adorable and entertaining, and it was clearly the kind of custom that could only be done in a country that doesn't actively try to scare parents into thinking that perverts and predators are hiding around every corner.

I mean, the parents' anxiety was also part of the show, but the discussion over there was not about how irresponsible the parents are being for letting their kids out of sight. It seemed like a great way to lightly guide the kids into taking on independence and responsibility, building confidence and also help the parents relax their grip on them. Parents need to let their children grow and develop just as much as the kids benefit from such errands.

If you have Netflix, check it out for yourself and report back here.