When the Japanese TV show ¡°Hajimete no Otsukai¡± was added to Netflix recently, it brought back uneasy memories. Dubbed ¡°Old Enough!¡± for English-speaking viewers, it follows Japanese toddlers as they run their first errand for their parents. Whether they actually are ¡°old enough¡± is up for debate.
I came across the show for the first time years ago on good ol¡¯ linear television here in Japan. My daughter, Hana, was 5 and already slightly older than most children on the show (apparently the cut-off age for ¡°Hajimete no Otsukai¡± is 5 since that¡¯s when most children will be able to figure out they¡¯re being followed by a camera crew). My Japanese wife and I agreed that it might be time to send Hana out on her own; my wife being a little more assured of this than I was. In my home country of Germany, kids under 7 can¡¯t legally buy anything on their own, and I wouldn¡¯t have minded going by the German rules.
It¡¯s not like the kids featured on ¡°Old Enough!¡± are engaging in death-defying stunts or humiliating feats in a quest for vapid fame like grown-ups do on reality TV. They¡¯re simply going to a convenience store to buy bread or milk, and then return home with the change, all the while being secretly filmed. The show is fascinating and nerve-wracking, especially if you have young children of your own. And it¡¯s popular ¡ª it has been running for more than 30 years. On the episode I saw, there were adult guest stars who had been the show¡¯s unwitting subjects in their (much) younger years and who were now nostalgically reminiscing about how they had once bought milk as preschoolers, in front of an audience of millions.
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