| There's a new resort in Japan for parents and their | | | | transfixing the entire nation. |
| kids that is getting rave reviews and increasing in | | | | The Fantasy Kids Resort is ideal under these |
| popularity as each day passes. The resort, located at | | | | circumstances, most parents say. It combines the |
| Ebina in Japan, is known as the Fantasy Kids Resort. It | | | | parents concerns with the well-known Japanese |
| contains all the basic amenities of any regular park for | | | | penchant for cleanliness and a free-spending |
| young children. However, this park has a few extras | | | | reverence for children that has only become deeper |
| that clearly make it stand out. It is equipped with | | | | with the dropping birthrates among single-child homes. |
| uniformed monitors, security cameras and sterilized | | | | As one parent put it, "Here I feel safe enough to let my |
| sand. In addition, visitory are told to spray the wheels | | | | kid out of my sight." "It's too late when something has |
| of their strollers with antiseptic soap. | | | | already happened," said Yukiko Matsushita, visiting with |
| The indoor park is pretty near to Tokyo, Japan's | | | | her 4-year-old daughter. |
| capital. The fact is that it is only one of at least a | | | | Recent crime statistics bear out the reason for this |
| dozen similar parks that are situated all over Japan. It | | | | renewed concern among Japanese parents for their |
| makes one think that, with Japan being one of the | | | | kids. According to recent figures, kidnapping cases |
| safest places on earth, isn't this kind of thing being | | | | involving children have gone up by a stunning 25 |
| overly-protective of children? | | | | percent since 2001. There have also been a spate of |
| A recent informal survey of Japanese parents | | | | dastardly murders of late. In one such murder, the |
| revealed that they are all for such parks and actually | | | | body of a little girl was stuffed in a box while in |
| believe them to be a logical and appropriate response | | | | another, a child was stabbed over a dozen times in |
| to a string of dramatic crimes against Japanese | | | | the chest. These are the kind of heinous crimes that |
| children that occured recently. These crimes were so | | | | have shocked the entire nation and parents |
| out of the ordinary that they have succeeded in | | | | everywhere. |