I saw a young girl and her sister with their parents the other day in Isetan, the department store of choice for young, hip families in the Tokyo area, probably shopping for Children's Day (Kodomo no Hi), which was last Saturday.
They were looking at clothes in the kids section where designer T-shirts and jeans are sold with price tags to the tune of 25,000 yen or more. Little girls were trying on True Religion designer jeans and parading in front of their parents who smiled, approved and then promptly told the salesclerk to wrap them up.
Watching them, I was struck — in fact more like hammered over the head with a blunt instrument — by how the experience of being a child in Japan has changed in the last 30 years.