Noisy kids skateboarding in the street. Couples arguing at home. People gathered on the sidewalk and gossiped for hours. Some people would describe these activities as noise pollution. A new website in Japan has put the perpetrators on the map and sparked discussion about attacking those who disrupt the peace.
The website, DQN Today, describes itself as a crowdsourced guide to help house hunters avoid neighborhoods inhabited by “stupid parents letting their kids play on roads and parking lots.” It has maps that visualize the dorozoku or ‘road tribe,’ a term that applies to people of all ages blocking the road or wreaking havoc in public.
Residents who find noise intolerable have found an outlet on the website, which collects anonymous complaints about neighbors and pits each complaint on an interactive map, creating a comprehensive account of Japan’s annoying sounds and sights.
Noise complaints have increased in the capital Tokyo, with police recording a 30 percent increase between March and April last year. Then the government closed schools and advised residents to work remotely because of the coronavirus, making some all too aware of house-bound noises that they had previously paid little attention to.
Outside, most parks have remained open – and busy – even though some playgrounds have been closed off during the state of emergency in Japan.
The creator of the website initially responded to email inquiries about the site on Wednesday, but declined to give his full name. He said the map was a non-subtle hint to residents – they know who they are, even if they’re never mentioned – and to government officials, whom he hoped to watch out for. The creator, who describes himself as a freelance web developer in Yokohama, Japan, and uses the Twitter handle @hotaniya, later became unresponsive to emails.
The site started in 2016 and initially had a few hundred users. Since then, it has grown exponentially as it has sparked debate, especially over what experts say appears to be society’s growing intolerance to the sounds of children playing.
While many on social media have praised the website for shedding light on the problem of noise, some parents find its approach troubling and fear a growing divide between families with children and neighbors who can’t stand them. Among the 6,000 diverse complaints, relating to topics such as parking violations, excessive swearing, or stray cats scratching car tires, there are many mentions indicating areas frequented by unsupervised children.
Saori Hiramoto, 35, an activist who successfully lobbied the Tokyo Metropolitan government to allow strollers on overcrowded trains in 2019, said the card showed a breakdown in communication and the rupture of a society that was once interdependent.
“I really think it’s so hard to raise children,” she said, “People say parents should be responsible for childcare, but it’s very difficult, especially for single parents. We’ve reached our limits.
“I think society or community should see and educate children as members of the 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 map could harm children and teens by revealing unsupervised places they hang out. But some parents defend complaints about their children, making it difficult for others to approach them with concern, he said.
“In the past, parents apologized and disciplined their children,” he said. “But now parents are getting hostile to people who scold.”
At least 1,500 new users registered to use the card between March and April last year, just as Tokyo Police recorded the increase in noise complaints.
One complaint reads: The meetings “are terribly talkative and noisy. I stared furiously for a long time, but they didn’t stop. Children are also left unattended and make strange noises. “
Another says, “Three or four children gather and play loudly on vacations, and a high-pitched voice is heard nearby.”
“I forgot this was a road,” wrote another user of a stretch of asphalt often frequented by skateboarding preteenagers.
The dorozoku website isn’t the first digital map to draw controversy over its details. Oshimaland records “stigmatized property” in Japan and around the world, where murders, suicides and fires have taken place. Recently, new users of the Dorozoku card have tried to register nuisance complaints in Taiwan, Portugal, Germany, and the UK, but posts are limited to Japan for legal reasons.
The map site does not allow comments aimed directly at private homes or schools, but it does allow references to unattended children playing on nearby roads, noting that it was ultimately the responsibility of parents and schools to supervise children at all times.
Over the years, residents in various parts of the country have campaigned against the construction of kindergartens, even as parents have advocated for more affordable childcare. Kobe residents sued a kindergarten for playground cacophony in 2016, but the case was dismissed in 2017.
Experts see a growing intolerance to children playing, as some in the country’s aging population are becoming less familiar with the sounds of small children. Over the years, residents in various districts have campaigned against the construction of kindergartens, even as parents have called for more affordable childcare and economists fear that the people of Japan, which has the oldest population, are not having enough babies.
Public parks are covered with signs prohibiting all kinds of activities in response to complaints from residents. Nishi-Ikebukuro Park in Toshima, Tokyo has attracted attention for its ban on 45 different activities, such as skateboarding, skipping rope, and football. A local official said the bans stemmed from a decade of complaints.
Ko Fujii, the founder and chief executive of the public affairs agency Makaira and a visiting professor at Tama University’s Center for Rule-making Strategies in Tokyo, has noted incidents in recent years where disaffected commuters harassed mothers who carried babies on public transport.
The father of two young children, Mr. Fujii, said he had plastered a sticker with the slogan “We love babies, it’s okay to cry” to show his support for his fellow parents.
“I think some people are just so frustrated with city life that they can become so treacherous,” he said.
Japan has no shortage of noise disputes between neighbors. A 38-year-old construction worker was stabbed to death in his parents’ apartment in Tokyo in May by a 60-year-old resident of the building, who told police he “could not bear the loud footsteps and voices.”
On Wednesday, a couple in Kyoto won a case against six neighbors, who they had sued for harassment over noise conflicts affecting their children. When one of the prosecutors, Shu Murayama, reached by phone, he said he considered the map a useful resource for others.
“You can avoid problems with this,” he said, adding that he had noticed complaints pinned up in his own neighborhood.