‘It made my day more meaningful’: the Japanese gen Zers attempting a two-hour limit on smartphone use | Japan

Despite full -time work for a company in Tokyo, Shoki Moriyama manages to extend eight hours a day to devote to his smartphone.

“I need my phone to navigate information wars,” explains Moriyama, who, at 25, is part of a generation that cannot imagine life without scrolling the news and social media, messaging applications and video clips out of the wall.

He is not alone. Although the excessive use of smartphones is a global phenomenon, authorities in Japan take measures, in the midst of the growing concern for its physical and psychological toll, especially on children and young people.

Last week, the city of Toyoake in central Japan introduced a measure limiting the use of smartphones among its 69,000 residents at two hours a day, in what those responsible say they are an attempt to combat evidence of online dependence and sleep deprivation. The order – adopted by the city’s assembly last month – does not have penalties for those who ignore it.

Moriyama was one of several people, all in their twenties, who accepted the Guardian challenge to keep their smartphone at a maximum of two hours and to share their experiences.

There have been resounding successes and abject failures.

Moriyama, which usually checks the line – an instant test, new popular “super app” entertainment in Japan – as well as Tiktok, Instagram and X, conceded that staying outside the sites, or at least radically its use, had been a struggle.

“I spend about eight hours a day on my phone, so two hours, it’s too little … and not enough time for me to stay up to date with everything,” he said. “In the end, I used my smartphone for an hour and 50 minutes, which is a massive reduction on my usual screen time. I used the additional time to read a book, study a little and go to the gymnasium, so my day was not wasted.”

His colleague Tomomi Hanaoka also managed to brake his habit. “I spend about three hours on my phone on weekdays and six or seven hours on weekends, so two hours were very short. Most people need at least three to four hours, “said Hanaoka, who” can not do “without line, Tiktok and Instagram.

“I kept my use at two o’clock and I used free time to read and do other things.”

Akari Saito, a student at the university, obtained her warnings early, “because my personality is such that setting limits to something makes me want to do it more”.

While Saito welcomed the Toyoake initiative as a starting point for a broader discussion of the use of smartphones, it says that the accent should be on quality, not on quantity, screen time. “Although fixing a border between learning and entertainment can be difficult.”

Despite a valiant effort, Saito had a hard time making breakthroughs in its three to four hours daily. “I particularly had trouble putting him away during my train on my train at school or while I was walking. But I can see that the reduction in my use of my phone could make the day the day feels longer and allows me to spend it more significantly. ”

Yuri * has already tried to limit the use of her smartphone, generally when she has upcoming exams, even to hide Instagram and define a lock activated by password to make good measure.

She uses her device to check social media, search for recipes, send texts and access study equipment, although too much screen time gives her headache and tired eyes.

“I wonder why the prescription directly recommends restricting the use of smartphones. If the goal is to encourage people to rethink their use, they should be encouraged to establish their own rules, “she said.

“But I widely agree with the suggested means of using smartphones-it is because I do not need my smartphone for my hobbies and my interests. But people who mainly use theirs for entertainment and relief of stress will find measures like this difficult to accept.”

The mayor of Toyoake, Masafumi Koki, defended the measure, who attracted dozens of complaints of residents who accused the local government of interfere in their privacy.

Stressing that he regularly uses his smartphone to keep an eye on baseball scores and consult cards – but puts it aside during dinner – Koki says he feared that children and young people were sleeping sleep and family time in favor of scrolling, sending SMS and publishing.

After a wave of online criticisms, some of which wrongly said that the two -hour limit would be strictly applied, he said to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper: “If someone hears two hours, they will stop and think how long they really use their smartphone. This is the point.”

Young Japanese people spend an average of a little more than five hours a day online during the week, according to a survey published this year by the Children and Family Agency.

Aya * spends much more time on his aircraft than the national average, regularly forcing eight hours a day.

“I could not limit myself to just two hours, but the simple fact of being aware of the challenge made a difference. In the end, I was able to reduce my usual smartphone use by around 60%, which seemed significant,” said the university student, conceding that she had consulted a travel planner and checked her emails and SMS.

She expressed her support for the Toyoake initiative, speculating that the absence of penalties could be her greatest asset.

“This is precisely what makes it significant … You must establish your own rules and adjust them accordingly. It is an important opportunity to think concretely of our daily habits, rather than abstractly.”

And she did not miss the hours she usually spent “scrolling aimlessly”.

“I spent more time enjoying conversations and taking note of what was going on around me. It made my day more significant. ”

It will be music with Koki’s ears. On the eve of the controversial experience of his city in social engineering, the mayor insisted that this was worth it. “These are sleep, family and well-being,” he says. “If the prescription means that a few people stop and talk about their habits, then it works.”

* The name has been changed on request.