[Mykas]

I think many of you are not looking at this from an outside perspective but are taking it personally. In most of the world, children are seen as little more than property and thier oppinion is worth about as much a one legged man in an @$$ kicking contest. As for Aoki he is really just an outsider interfering in private business and whether he is thier teacher or not his only responsibility in most cultures is to teach the skills that they should learn at school. I am no expert on Japan but when I visited I saw one small child misbehaviving in public and the mother smacked him on the face 3 or 4 times till he calmed down and quieted down. No one and I mean no one did or said anything most people ignored it like they were invisible. When I lived in China for a while it was even more pronounced, (I was a teacher) I had students beg me not to give them a bad grade because they would get a beating from thier parents. I was told by one of my Chinese colleages that I could hit the ones that acted up, when i seemed suprised he told me the parents would be more concerned with what the child had done to deserve a beating and probably hand out another beating rather than be mad at me for giving the beating. After I married a Chinese girl I asked her about this subject and she causually replied that she got beat by her teachers all the time, when I asked if her mom really beat her too after that she said only at first because after that she had the good sense never to tell her mother again. I saw babies going down the street naked squatting to pee and poop whever they pleased. Children as small as 3 or 4 left unattended while parents did who knows what. One time I went to a kareoke bar (found out that is where the Chinese red light district is) and saw kids (small ones) waiting around outside while men went inside and played around with hookers. Japan and China aren't the same and my experience with Japan is much more limited but it has been my experience that attitudes twards children lean more twards "spare the rod and spoil the child" than some of the "happy happy joy joy everyone deserves a hug" stuff I have seen in America....
BTW if you read all of this and you were offended or I said something that pissess you off I hope you won't take it personally most of this was just my observations of some Asian culture aspects that really may be far outside the experience of most people and just wanted to share so that you could get some idea of how the rest of the world sees children.