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Can this Japanese city make residents put down their smartphones?
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The authorities will not track residents’ smartphone use and there will be no penalties, city officials say, for exceeding the two-hour recommendation.
PHOTO: KENTARO TAKAHASHI/NYTIMES
Javier C. Hernandez, Hisako Ueno
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TOKYO - The idea came to Mr Masafumi Kouki, the energetic mayor of the Japanese city of Toyoake, on a summer day as he pondered rising truancy rates at local schools.
Toyoake’s nearly 68,000 residents, especially children, seemed increasingly addicted to their digital devices, he thought, so why not try to reduce the amount of time they spent staring at screens?
