Japan Top 10

Every year, there is a new road hazard in the mornings which keeps repeating itself: School children.

In Japan, the school year starts in April. The date is not fixed, but the schools usually begin at the second full week of April. In some places, the school start is staggered so the first class starts a week earlier than the rest of the school; or reversed.

Children typically walk to school, no matter what the weather. Japan is so densely populated that schools usually are close by. And the schools only close during typhoons, floods, or excessive snowfall.

So every morning between 0730 and 0815 there will be small trains of children walking to school. They will walk at the side of the road, since there usually are no pavements. As all children, they have a hard time walking in a line and will play and run around. At crosswalks, there will be police or volunteers with yellow flags, making sure they cross traffic properly.

But when they go home, there is nobody to keep them in order, and the youngest children will go first – around two or three in the afternoon. Even more reason to be careful in residential areas and around schools. Look out for the ”bunka” (文) sign, which shows that it is a school area. This is not a formal road sign, and in some parts of the country it is not used at all, in others painted on the road, and in Tokyo a small green sign affixed to utility poles.

And they are not the biggest danger – the junior high school children go to school at about the same time, and they ride bicycles. If they are in a hurry, they take shortcuts, and when they do they are even more dangerous. Better look out.