Noisy kids skateboarding in the streets. Couples quarrel in their homes. People gathered on the sidewalk and clapped for hours. Some people would describe these activities as noise pollution. A new website in Japan put the perpetrators on a map and sparked debate about those who are disturbing the peace.
The DQN Today website describes itself as a crowdsourcing guide to help house hunters avoid neighborhoods where “stupid parents let their children play in the streets and parking lots”. It is populated by maps depicting the Dorozoku or the “street tribe”. This term applies to people who block the path or wreak havoc in public.
Local residents who find noise unbearable have found a point of sale on the website that collects anonymous information about neighbors and records each complaint on an interactive map to create a detailed record of the irritating sounds and sights of Japan.
Noise complaints have increased in the capital, Tokyo, and police saw a 30 percent increase between March and April last year. At that point, the government closed schools and advised residents to work remotely because of the coronavirus, which led some to become all too aware of noises in their home country that they had previously paid little attention to.
Outside, most of the parks have remained open and crowded, although some play areas were cordoned off during the Japanese state of emergency.
The website creator initially responded via email to questions about the website on Wednesday but declined to provide his full name. He said the map was a less subtle clue to residents – they know who they are, although they’re never named – and to government officials, whom he hoped would look out. The creator, who describes himself as a freelance web developer based in Yokohama, Japan and using the Twitter handle @hotaniya, later stopped responding to emails.
The site started in 2016 and initially had a few hundred users. It has grown exponentially since then, as it fueled debate, especially about what experts say appears to be society’s growing intolerance of the sounds of children playing.
While many on social media have praised the site for shedding light on the problem of noise, some parents find their approach problematic and fear a growing gap between families with children and neighbors they can’t stand. Among the 6,000 wide-ranging complaints covering topics such as parking violations, excessive swearing, or stray cats scratching car tires, there are many entries that single out areas frequented by unsupervised children.
Saori Hiramoto, 35, an activist who successfully campaigned for the Tokyo metropolitan government in 2019 to allow strollers on crowded trains, said the card showed a breakdown in communications and the rupture of a society that was once interdependent.
“I really find it so difficult to raise children,” she said. “People say parents should be responsible for childcare, but it’s very difficult, especially for single parents.” We have reached our limits.
“I think society or community should observe and raise children as members of society,” she added.
Akihiko Watanabe, a professor in the Faculty of Education at Shiga University near Kyoto, said in an interview on Wednesday that the card has the potential to harm children and adolescents by revealing places they hang out unsupervised. But some parents become defensive about complaints about their children, making it difficult for others to reach out to them with concerns, he said.
“In the past, parents have apologized and disciplined their children,” he said. “But now parents are becoming hostile to people who scold.”
Between March and April last year, at least 1,500 new users registered to use the card. One complaint reads: The assemblies “are terribly talkative and loud. I stared at each other for a long time, but they didn’t stop. Children are also left unattended and make strange noises. “
Another says, “Three or four kids gather and play loudly on vacation, and a high-pitched voice echoes around the neighborhood.”
“I forgot this was a road,” wrote another user of an asphalt track frequented by teenage skateboarders.
The Dorozoku website isn’t the first digital map to cause controversy over the details. Oshimaland logs “stigmatized real estate” in Japan and around the world where murders, suicides and fires have occurred. Recently, new users of the Dorozoku card have attempted to log complaints about public harassment in Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and the UK. However, the publication is restricted to Japan for legal reasons.
The mapping page does not allow comments aimed directly at private homes or schools, but does allow references to unsupervised children playing on nearby streets and points out that it was ultimately the responsibility of parents and schools to supervise children at all times.
Over the years, residents in different parts of the country have opposed the building of kindergartens, even though parents have called for cheaper day care options. Kobe residents sued a kindergarten for playground cacophony in 2016, but the case was dismissed in 2017.
Experts see a growing intolerance of children playing as some in the country’s aging population become less familiar with the sounds of young children. Over the years, residents of various counties have opposed the building of kindergartens, despite parents calling for cheaper daycare options and economists fear that people in Japan with the oldest population may not have enough babies.
Public parks have signs prohibiting all types of activity in response to complaints from local residents. Nishi-Ikebukuro Park in Toshima, Tokyo, has drawn attention for its bans on 45 different activities such as skateboarding, jumping rope and soccer. A local official said the bans were due to a decade worth of complaints.
Ko Fujii, founder and executive director of Makaira Public Affairs Agency and visiting professor at the Center for Regulatory Strategies at Tama University in Tokyo, has seen incidents in recent years where disgruntled commuters harassed mothers who were carrying babies on public transport.
The father of two young children, Mr. Fujii, said he put a sticker with the slogan “We love babies, it’s okay to cry” to show support to other parents.
“I think some people are so frustrated with city life that they can get so insidious,” he said.
There is no shortage of noise disputes between neighbors in Japan. A 38-year-old construction worker was stabbed to death at his parents’ apartment in Tokyo in May by a 60-year-old resident of the building who told police he “couldn’t stand the loud footsteps and voices”.
On Wednesday, a couple in Kyoto won a case against six neighbors who had sued them for harassment over noise disputes involving their children. When one of the plaintiffs, Shu Murayama, was reached by phone, he said he saw the map as a helpful resource for others.
“You can avoid problems with it,” he said, adding that he had noticed complaints in his own neighborhood.
