[shioyama]

I'm Canadian, I used "North America" because I wanted to include Canada. Not in reference to "arrests" but in reference to attitudes about giving children freedom, which are very similar in my experience.

> Country or region is just too broad a brush to stereotype, even in Japan Sapporo is very different from Tokyo.

I agree about stereotyping. But seriously: even Sapporo (which as a rare relatively new Japanese city has similarities to modern western cities) is much more similar to Tokyo than it is to, say, any North American city.

My point is not about whether laws are what where, but that attitudes are in line with those laws (and are what gave rise to them).

Read other comments in response to the post, and you see many other people referencing experiences similar to what I'm talking about.

I'm not trying to say Japan doesn't have problems (it does). Just that on this specific point, Western countries are heading in a very bad direction IMHO.