Noisy children skating on the streets. Couples arguing in their homes. People gathered on the sidewalk, gossiping for long hours. Some people would describe these activities as noise pollution. A new website in Japan put perpetrators on a map, spurring debate on how to target those who disturb the peace.
The website, DQN Today, describes itself as a crowdsourced guide to help home hunters avoid neighborhoods inhabited by “stupid parents who let their kids play on the roads and parking lots”. It has maps that visualize the dorozoku, or “road tribe”, a term that applies to people of all ages who block the way or wreak havoc in public.
Residents who find noise pollution unbearable have found a means of communication on the website, which collects anonymous complaints about neighbors and puts all complaints on an interactive map, creating an elaborate record of Japan’s irritating sounds and sights.
Noise complaints have increased in the capital, Tokyo, with police registering a 30% increase between March and April last year. That was when the government closed schools and advised residents to work remotely because of the coronavirus, making some aware of the domestic sounds they paid little attention to before.
Outside, although some recreational areas were isolated during Japan’s state of emergency, most parks remained open – and crowded.
The site’s creator initially responded to questions via email on Wednesday about the site, but declined to provide his full name. He said the map was a less-than-subtle hint for residents – they know who they are, although they never have their names mentioned – and for government officials, who he hoped would pay attention. The creator, who describes himself as a freelance web developer in Yokohama, Japan, and goes by the Twitter nickname @hotaniya, later stopped responding 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 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 clarifying the noise problem, some parents find its approach problematic and fear an increasing divide between families with children and neighbors who do not support them. Among the 6,000 comprehensive complaints, covering issues such as parking violation, excessive cursing or stray cats that scratch car tires, there are many entrances that highlight areas frequented by unattended children.
Saori Hiramoto, 35, an activist who successfully lobbied the Tokyo metropolitan government to allow baby strollers on crowded trains in 2019, said the map demonstrated a failure in communication and the fragmentation of a society that was once interdependent.
“I really feel it is so difficult to raise children,” she said, “people say that parents should be responsible for looking after their children, but it is very difficult, especially for single parents. We have reached our limit.
“I think that society or community should observe and raise children as members of society,” she added.
Akihiko Watanabe, a professor at the Faculty of Education at Shiga University, near Kyoto, said in an interview on Wednesday that the map has the potential to harm children and adolescents by exposing the places where they are left unsupervised. But some parents are on the defensive about complaints about their children, making it difficult for others to approach them with concerns, he said.
“In the past, parents apologized and disciplined their children,” he said. “But now the parents are hostile towards the people they scold.”
At least 1,500 new users registered to use the map between March and April last year, just as the Tokyo police recorded an increase in noise complaints.
One complaint says: The meetings “are terribly talkative and loud. I looked for a long time, but they didn’t stop. Children are also left alone and make strange noises. “
Another says: “Three or four children get together and play very loudly during the holidays, and a high-pitched voice echoes in the neighborhood.”
“I forgot it was a road,” wrote another user about a stretch of asphalt frequented by skateboarding teenagers.
The dorozoku website is not the first digital map to generate controversy about its details. Oshimaland registers “stigmatized properties” in Japan and around the world, where murders, suicides and fires occurred. Recently, new users of the Dorozoku map have attempted to file complaints of public unrest in Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Britain, but posts are limited to Japan for legal reasons.
The mapping site does not allow comments directed directly to private homes or schools, but allows references to children playing alone 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 building daycare centers, even with parents asking for more accessible daycare options. Kobe residents sued a daycare center in 2016 because of the playground cacophony, but the case was closed in 2017.
Experts note an increasing intolerance of children’s play as part of the country’s elderly population becomes less familiar with the sounds of young children. Over the years, residents in several districts have campaigned against building daycare centers, even though parents are asking for more accessible daycare options and economists worried that people in Japan, who have the older population, don’t have enough babies.
Public parks are covered with signs that prohibit all types of activities in response to uncomfortable complaints from residents. Nishi-Ikebukuro Park in Toshima, Tokyo, has attracted attention by banning 45 different activities, such as skateboarding, jumping rope and football. A local official said the bans were the result of a decade-old complaint.
Ko Fujii, founder and chief executive of the public relations agency Makaira and a visiting professor at the Center for Strategies for Rulemaking at Tama University in Tokyo, has observed incidents in recent years when disgruntled passengers harassed mothers carrying babies on public transport.
The father of two young children, Fujii said he stuck a sticker with the slogan “We love babies, it’s okay to cry” to show support for parents.
“I think some people are just so frustrated with city life that they can get so insidious,” he said.
Japan saw 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 “couldn’t stand the steps and loud voices”.
On Wednesday, a couple in Kyoto won a lawsuit against six neighbors, whom they had prosecuted for harassing noise disputes that concern their children. When contacted by phone, one of the complainants, Shu Murayama, said that he considered the map a useful resource for others.
“You can avoid problems with that,” he said, adding that he noticed complaints in his own neighborhood.