It is 12:30 in the afternoon. I am working at home in Tokyo suburb.
Every weekday on this time I hear regional broadcasting from outdoor speakers; "Dear everyone in our district. We, the pupils of the primary school, are now going home. Please look after our safety."

For some reason I do not like this broadcasting. It is an intrusion into my private life, I feel.
I know that in today's Japan one can not be sure about safety of children. The number of mentally-ill people, who commit unprovoked crime on passers-by, is not small.

Nevertheless, would such a broadcasting prevent a crime? No.
Therefore, this broadcasting seems to be nothing other than a bureaucratic precaution by the local authority. If some crime is committed to children, they can claim that they had been taking precautionary measures.

At 17:00 every evening the same speakers loudly broadcast the melody of a famous old song, "Yu-yake koyake"("The sun sets"). Sometimes I feel nostalgic, because the melody reminds me of my far childhood. But in many cases the practice only irritate me, because we do not have to be informed about the sunset, and because I want to enjoy the beauty of the sunset in my own taste.

About one year ago there was a false broadcasting in one locality; "Evacuate, evacuate! A missile will soon hit the area. Everyone, evacuate!" Newspapers report that no one in the area believed it, and there were many telephone calls to the local municipality to point out that there had been a strange broadcasting.

Well, we are not as collectivistic as widely believed, any more.