![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/sp-1.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kids, adults, and even students who don\u2019t live in the city are told to limit their use of smartphones and other devices<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n On Monday, the city council of Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture, passed a municipal ordinance to limit the amount of time per day that residents and others within the city should be allowed to use their smartphones<\/strong>. The measure passed with 12 out of 19 participating council members voting in favor of its resolution, and comes one month after the initiative was announced to the public<\/a> as being under consideration.<\/p>\n The ordinance officially establishes two hours per day<\/strong> as the guideline for the maximum amount of leisure use per day for \u201csmartphones and the like,\u201d<\/strong> which the resolution defines as \u201cdevices such as smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, and personal computers that can connect to the Internet and use apps for viewing or listening to information, playing games, and accessing social media.\u201d<\/p>\n Politicians have, for generations, pointed to new\/recently popularized pieces of technology as dangers that are going to rot children\u2019s brains, but what\u2019s especially unusual about the Toyoake ordinance is that it isn\u2019t just targeting minors. The ordinance is meant to apply to all residents of the city, from kids to full-grown adults<\/strong>. In a particularly ambitious attempt to extend its reach, the ordinance\u2019s wording says it is also meant to be applied to children under the age of 18 who live in a different city but commute to schools in Toyoake<\/strong>, thus attempting to regulate the at-home behavior of kids who live outside the community the Toyoake city council is supposed to have jurisdiction over.<\/p>\n The ordinance includes certain exemptions, though, as it places no limits whatsoever on how long a person is allowed to use their phone or other devices for study, work, or \u201chousehold chores.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25bc So apparently time spent Googling \u201chow clean toilet big curry rice dinner no regrets\u201d won\u2019t count against your government-approved two-hour of smartphone leisure allowance.<\/p>\n While the ordinance is now an official part of the city\u2019s governmental policy, it isn\u2019t an outright ban. In its current form, it contains no penalties for non-compliance<\/strong>, and the ordinance also says that the city \u201cis not intending to monitor residents\u201d to see if they\u2019re staying within their allotted two hours a day. \u201cThe \u2018two hours\u2019 is not a fixed amount, but, at most, a guideline,\u201d<\/strong> said Masafumi Koki, Toyoake\u2019s 56-year-old mayor. \u201cWe are not trying to reject the idea of smartphones themselves, or completely deny people from enjoying video games or social media. We just want to signal that we want people to avoid cutting into their sleeping time by using [their devices] too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25bc Video of the city council session in which the ordinance was passed<\/p>\n\n Koki went on to add that \u201cWe are not saying \u2018It\u2019s wrong to go over two hours,\u2019<\/strong> so we would like families to reconsider their individual usages and make decisions regarding them,\u201d and the ordinance contains an accompanying resolution also passed by the Toyoake city council acknowledging a \u201crespect for residents\u2019 freedom and diversity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n However, if you\u2019re scratching your head over how \u201cWe\u2019re not saying it\u2019s bad to go over two hours\u201d is supposed to mesh with passing an official city ordinance that says \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t go over two hours,\u201d you\u2019re not the only one having trouble following the city council\u2019s logic, as reactions to the above video of the resolution being passed have been overwhelmingly negative<\/strong>, with comments including:<\/p>\n \u201cDoesn\u2019t the city council have anything more important to be doing?\u201d<\/em> Regarding the last comment, it\u2019s unlikely that Toyoake has either the surveillance infrastructure or the constitutional justification to implement fines, jail time, or other penalties for those who ignore the ordinance, especially in its current form which includes references to the two hours per day as a \u201cguideline.\u201d However, with Japan being a culture with widespread respect for law and order, failure to comply with a city ordinance could be used as a method of disparaging one\u2019s character and morals, with an associated societal pressure to conform to the rules if one wants to have a role in fields such as civil service or education.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong about cautioning people about the dangers of sleep deprivation or overuse of technology, the ordinance is, at its core, an attempt to substitute the council\u2019s judgement for residents\u2019 own regarding time management. It seems, though, that many people think the council itself could use some pointers on the best, most constructive ways to use its time, such as figuring out ways to deal with rising prices, stagnant wages, and other more pressing issues affecting people in Japan.<\/p>\n Source: TBS News Dig<\/a> via Livedoor News<\/a> via Hachima Kiko<\/a>, NHK<\/a>, Toyoake City (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>), YouTube\/CBC\u30cb\u30e5\u30fc\u30b9\u3010CBC\u30c6\u30ec\u30d3\u516c\u5f0f\u3011<\/a><\/em> Kids, adults, and even students who don\u2019t live in the city are told to limit their use of smartphones and other devices. On Monday, the city council of Toyoake, Aichi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/sp-2.jpg?w=640\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m so jealous of their awesome jobs: getting paid to sit around and have pointless discussions.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThey seem to have a ton of free time on their hands. I\u2019d like them to pass an ordinance showing how much they\u2019re all getting paid, on an hourly basis, to do this sort of thing.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cJust wasting time and tax money on this crap.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cYou pass a behavior-restricting ordinance while talking about \u2018respecting residents\u2019 freedom and diversity? You all really have trouble using words, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cBut no ordinance to limit time spent watching TV, huh?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI wonder if the council members who voted for this are actually going to follow the ordinance themselves.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThis is kind of terrifying. It\u2019s not the sort of behavior that government should be trying to control.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cDoesn\u2019t this count as a violation of human rights?\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cIs their plan to start with no penalties, then add them in after the ordinance itself has already been passed?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nTop image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
\nInsert images: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"