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 — 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.