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(株)NECラーニングの辛口ネイティブ講師Mike Lloretから見た日本や日本人についての辛口英文エッセイです。英文リーディング、異文化理解のご参考にご活用ください。

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2009/11/20

Glimpses of Japan(外国人から見た日本)

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  Glimpses of Japan  (外国人から見た日本)
       vol.266         Strolling Safely

                                 2009.11.20
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I was disappointed to see that Mizuho Fukushima, the Consumer Affairs 
Minister, told reporters Wednesday, after reports of a product recall  
*in the US* due to safety concerns, “I have heard that [a British-made 
brand of stroller, what the Japanese call 'baby cars'] are popular in 
Japan as well. I would like to request that people refrain from using 
them”.

As far as I can determine, that brand of stroller hasn't been involved 
in any notable accidents here in Japan, even though 170,000 of them 
have been sold here since 2002. According to officials of the Japanese 
import agent for the strollers, there have been just four reports of 
children getting their fingers caught in the hinges when they were opened 
or folded. It's worth noticing that it's the *importer* saying that, not 
a government or consumer affairs organization, from whom I have seen no 
reports so far.

I don't see Ms. Fukushima requesting Japanese people to refrain from buying 
Toyota automobiles, even though they have been involved in *fatal* accidents 
in the US and the company recently announced that it will recall *3.8 million* 
cars because of it…after customers had been complaining for years. 

Aside from the Consumer Affairs Minister's extraordinary over-reaction to 
the stroller safety issue (or her under-reaction to the car safety issue, 
depending on your point of view), and the political issues involved, I have 
other thoughts on these so-called "baby cars". 

Back in the mid-70s, such strollers were small, light-weight, and folded 
up easily into a very portable package not much bigger than a folded umbrella. 
They were admirably suited for their purpose: moving infants and small 
children over relatively short distances without having to carry them. 
They were good for short shopping trips or excursions to the neighborhood 
park, and if really necessary they could be folded up and *carried* along 
with the child onto trains for longer journeys. 

Now they have become huge, heavy, unwieldy vehicles which even folded are 
enormous in comparison with their predecessors. They are frequently getting 
caught in train and elevator doors. It has become a common sight to see 
parents (mostly mothers) struggling with getting them up and down escalators, 
and then pushing and shoving these miniature versions of Juggernaut's carriage 
into crowded trains. I saw *three* of them in one Yamanote Line car during 
the morning rush hour recently, complete with wailing children and mothers 
oblivious to the hundreds of glares they were receiving from the other 
passengers whom they had squashed even more than usual into the packed train. 
Similar cases of anti-social behavior can be seen in department stores, book 
shops, restaurants, 
and so on.

I'm told that there is even a sort of brand consciousness, a social competition 
like that for hand bags, among many young mothers. One has to be seen with the 
right (i.e., expensive) "baby car" or one is hopelessly out of fashion.

On the stupidity scale, where more stupid is higher, I rank stroller fashion 
even above designer clothes for infants and toddlers, and clothing for dogs. 

I'm not suggesting that parents should return to the old days, when children 
were carried strapped to the mother's or father's back…although that might 
be a good idea for some of the parents I see: they look as if they could use 
the exercise. Nor am I seriously suggesting that small children shouldn't be 
taken along on long-distance shopping trips unless the parent is prepared to 
carry them when appropriate rather than roll them everywhere. That's somewhat 
extreme, I guess.  I do think, however, that it would be a good idea to reconsider 
those handy, light-weight, truly collapsible strollers of yore. They did the 
job, they were much easier to manage, and they were a lot cheaper, too.

Oh, and before I end this, I have one more thing to say about strollers. 
I don't believe that kids getting their fingers caught in the hinges when 
the strollers are folded and unfolded is a *stroller* safety issue. That's 
a *parent* safety issue, and I believe it's irresponsible for the Consumer 
Affairs Minister, or anybody else, to encourage careless parents by putting 
the blame on the stroller. If they were spontaneously collapsing or something 
of the sort, I'd thing differently. But failing to keep the kid's fingers 
out of the hinges is the parent's fault, not the stroller's.

Glimpses of Japan vol.266
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