Every year, the National Police Agency sponsors a nationwide traffic safety promotion campaign that is mainly carried out at the community level. In my neighborhood in Tokyo, the campaign involves setting up tents that are manned by local volunteers.

Three years ago, when I first moved to this neighborhood, the volunteers would hang banners with slogans on guardrails and keep an eye out for jaywalkers and reckless bicyclists. Two years ago, the volunteers could be seen sitting under the tents drinking tea and chatting among themselves. This year, the tents were erected and the banners hung, but there were no volunteers in sight.

This steady deterioration of resolve coincided with a steady influx of residents that accompanied a boom in apartment construction in the area. The legendary social cohesiveness of Japanese society is mostly based on small communities of people who have known each other for many years, and so it is hardly surprising that this cohesiveness cannot withstand the urbanization that has continued apace for the past half-century.