Children’s Perspective Lab Signs Partnership Agreement with Toyota City to Promote Child-Friendly Community Development

Based on the concept of "Adults Trying to See the World Through Children’s Eyes," Dentsu Inc.’s specialized organization, the " Children’s Perspective Lab "—which conducts research from the perspective of children across the Dentsu Group in Japan—signed a "Partnership Agreement with Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Regarding the Provision of Opportunities to Experience Children’s Perspectives for the Promotion of Child-Friendly City Development" on Thursday, April 16.

In recent years, social interest in children’s safety and development has grown, and there is a growing need for initiatives that support children not only through government but across the entire community. In particular, adults’ accurate understanding of children’s behaviors and perceptions serves as a crucial foundation for improving children’s living environments. However, opportunities to concretely experience children’s perspectives in daily life are limited, and cases where differences in understanding pose challenges are not uncommon.

Based on this agreement, the “Children’s Perspective Lab” and the City of Toyota will collaborate and cooperate to widely provide opportunities to experience children’s perspectives. They will also incorporate feedback gathered through citizen-participatory events into initiatives and research activities related to children’s perspectives.

At the signing ceremony held in Toyota City on the same day, Toyota City Mayor Toshihiko Ota and the co-representatives of the “Children’s Perspective Lab,” Fumiko Ishida and Mitsuhiro Kutsukake, took the stage.

Following an introduction to the “Children’s Perspective Lab” initiatives by Co-Representative Ishida, Mayor Ota actually experienced the “Adult School Bag,” one of the lab’s content offerings.

The “Adult School Bag” was created to allow adults to physically experience not only the size and weight of a school bag as felt by children, but also the additional items carried in hand—such as indoor shoe bags, gym uniforms, lunch bags, art supplies, and water bottles—that do not fit inside the bag. Based on the average weight of an elementary school student’s load (5.7 kg), the combined weight of the “Adult School Bag” (converted for an adult) and the additional items carried in hand totals approximately 18.9 kg, allowing adults to personally experience the hardships children face.(Reference link: https://dentsu-ho.com/articles/8334)

Mayor Ota stated, “Toyota City is a city of cars. Traffic safety is extremely important. I hope that through this initiative, we can verify the effectiveness of traffic safety measures from a child’s perspective, as well as the city’s overall traffic safety efforts.” Co-representative Ishida added, “It is well known that children have a narrower field of vision than adults, but I have long wanted to conduct our own research to determine exactly how much of a car’s presence they are actually unable to see.Including that, I would be very happy if we could work together with Toyota City on various projects in the future,” he said, outlining his vision for future activities. Co-representative Kutsukake added, “I hope that through this experience, citizens will enjoy reminiscing about their own childhoods while also gaining a better understanding of children’s perspectives, which they can then apply to creating a child-friendly city.”

Moving forward, Toyota City and the “Children’s Perspective Lab” plan to collaborate on various events, starting with the “Children’s Perspective Classroom” scheduled for July.

Since its launch in 2021, the “Children’s Perspective Lab” has been working to deepen understanding of children by having adults “try being a child” and to improve relationships between parents and children, as well as between society and children. Meanwhile, Toyota City enacted the “Toyota City Children’s Ordinance” in 2007 and has been continuously promoting community development that respects children’s rights.

■ Children’s Perspective Lab
A cross-group lab within the Dentsu Group in Japan that seriously yet enjoyably explores “what it means to see things from a child’s perspective.” The lab aims to deepen understanding of children by having adults “try being a child” and to improve relationships between parents and children, as well as between society and children.
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■Click here for the press release regarding this matter