{"id":179979,"date":"2025-09-30T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179979\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:55:08","slug":"japanese-city-pushes-2-hour-daily-cap-on-smartphone-use-to-boost-sleep-family-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179979\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese city pushes 2-hour daily cap on smartphone use to boost sleep, family time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of a central Japanese city has defended an unusual new ordinance that urges residents to limit their personal smartphone<\/a> use to just two hours per day, saying the guideline is intended to encourage better sleep and stronger family relationships, not to police private behaviour.<\/p>\n

Starting on Wednesday, residents of Toyoake in Aichi prefecture will be asked to limit their device use during leisure hours \u2013 defined as time outside work, study and daily necessities \u2013 to about two hours per day. The city has also advised that primary school-aged children refrain from using their devices after 9pm and older students after 10pm.<\/p>\n

While the ordinance contains no penalties or enforcement mechanisms, it has sparked widespread attention. Some have praised it as a needed intervention, but numerous critics have also accused the city of overstepping its role.<\/p>\n

Mayor Masafumi Koki, who led the initiative, insists the policy is a symbolic one aimed at encouraging self-reflection rather than forcing people to change their behaviours.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople thought we were trying to impose a strict time limit. That\u2019s not the case at all,\u201d Koki said in a recent interview, as quoted by Kyodo News. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to control anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure, which the city assembly passed by majority vote on September 22, is believed to be the first in Japan<\/a> to promote a daily screen-time cap for all residents, not just children. It applies only to voluntary screen time, excluding schoolwork, job-related use and household tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of a central Japanese city has defended an unusual new ordinance that urges residents to limit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[91297,2840,49,48,5472,2454,91298,91299,190,42920,4557,91296,35825,18262,61,1059,63634],"class_list":["post-179979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-aichi-prefecture","tag-australia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-instagram","tag-japan","tag-kyodo-news","tag-masafumi-koki","tag-mobile","tag-ordinance","tag-september","tag-snapchat","tag-social-media-platforms","tag-south-korea","tag-technology","tag-tiktok","tag-toyoake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}