‘Adventure Playgrounds’ as Community HubsAmid decline in playing outdoors, multiple generations connect through play

With an increasing number of parks removing equipment and banning playing with balls for safety reasons and neighbors complaining about noise, combined with the popularity of video games and smartphones and an increase in indoor leisure facilities, children are spending less time playing outdoors. How is this affecting their health and growth? We asked Naomi Nakagawa, head of the NGO Playtank, which operates outdoor play programs for children in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward.

Ms. Nakagawa says that it is true that children are spending less time playing outdoors today than in the past. In a survey conducted by Playtank in 2018 that asked how much time people spent playing outdoors on weekdays when they were children, among respondents in the age groups representing parents and grandparents, the answer receiving the most replies was “2-3 hours,” but among today’s children the top answer was “0-30 minutes.” She says that the biggest reason for this is that because schools are now closed on Saturdays and Sundays, they are in session for longer hours on weekdays, but other reasons include time taken by lessons (to learn an art or other skill) and private school lessons, having no friends nearby to play with, and an increase in options like video games and YouTube that can be enjoyed alone indoors. Public safety and traffic issues also mean that preschool-age children can no longer play outdoors unattended. In addition, increasingly hot summers and the risk of heatstroke mean that there are more days when schools and preschools do not allow children to play outdoors at their facilities during the summer.

In response to these developments, Ms. Nakagawa and some friends created Hikarigaoka Play Park in 2003. This started as a citizens’ activity for their own children, with support and financial assistance from Nerima Ward. Realizing that the need for children to be able to play freely outdoors was an issue nationwide, they set up an NGO in 2011 that was renamed Playtank in 2019. After 20 years of operation, a new group of parents took over the operation of Hikarigaoka Play Park jointly with Playtank in 2024.

Playtank also operates Nerima Ward Kodomonomori (Nerima Ward Children’s Forest), which is open seven days a week, with assistance from Nerima Ward and local companies. The park is set up as an “adventure playground” with the aim of giving children a place to spend time after school and on weekends, and an opportunity to interact with nature and with people from the local community. Although a ward of Tokyo, Nerima still has a relatively large amount of farmland and open spaces, and the park is located in a grove of trees in a residential neighborhood with fields and fruit trees growing nearby. Playtank also operates another play park program on behalf of Nerima Ward once or twice a week in eight different parks for children up to the age of three, giving these younger children and their parents an opportunity to play together outdoors.

One of Playtank’s objectives is to give children an opportunity to interact with adults other than their parents and teachers, and for adults to enjoy watching the growth and development of children other than their own. “Play leaders” are staff who have special skills like carpentry or knowledge of plants and animals. While interacting with these adults, children can discuss or ask questions about things that they would find difficult to discuss at home or school. Some of the children who come to these parks do not regularly attend school, but these programs are not only for those children. Ms. Nakagawa notes that their programs are inclusive, available for everyone to enjoy free of charge, connecting people through “play.”