Hi David and everyone,

I didn't expect a new entry so when I found it, I felt happy. :) When I saw the title of the entry, I thought you are talking about Japanese custom of sharing bedrooms with mother and child but this time you are talking about that with siblings. Hmm interesting. Let me share my thoghts to your questions.
1) Is it normal for brothers and sisters to share a bedroom in Japan?
Yes, it is. Because in most cases, there aren't enough space to give each child their own rooms.
Japanese housing situation isn't good, many people make do with small houses.

2) If it is, what would be the maximum age for this? (If there is one.)
I think appropriate age is around 10 when most children reach puberty. But often older children of both sexes still share bedrooms because of above mentioned reason.

3) Did any of you share a bedroom with a sibling of the opposite sex when you were growing up?
Yes, I have an elder brother and I shared bedroom with him until 12. I remember I had been asking my parent to give me my own room but I couldn't. But when I was 13, we moved to a bigger house so I was finally given my own room. When I was little, it's good for me to share the bedroom with my bro because I was afraid of darkness when I go to bed. My mom said you should go to bed with your brother if you said 怖い。Japanese young children are not get used to sleep alone in their own room.

4) Do you have the same situation with your own children now?
All of my children are boys. But in our case, 2 elder sons share bedroom and my youngest and I do, that's another different culture from Western one. (Not enough privacy of couple夫婦）

>Apparently, this is another example of a situation where the Western concept of "privacy" (for which, of course, Japanese does not even have a word) seems strange to Japanese people.
I think Japanese people have a concept of privacy too although it is much more milder(weaker) than that of Western one. We don't have the equivalent word for privacy but we use English word of "privacy".

And thank you for answering my question about the postage fee. It's ok it's still low price so I will order the book later. Thank you!

Did you enjoy skiing and Onsen? Please drive safely.

Oh, it started to snow in Osaka.❄

Fumie

•  Fumie
• 2012年2月 8日 07:28

Hi David and everyone,

It's a good surprise to have a new entry.
As some of you might know, we talked about sharing bedroom with mother and child before, and as Fumie said, this topic is another interesting one,isn't it?

As for the Western concept of "privacy", I'm afraid what Japanese people think is privacy may look like no privacy to the Westerners, so my opinion is slightly different from yours.

Here are my answers to your questions:

1) Is it normal for brothers and sisters to share a bedroom in Japan?

No, I don't think so, but in Japan, there are problems concerning housing; a lot of families can't afford to have houses that have enough rooms, and as a result children of opposite genders sometimes must share a room. Having said that, I assume many parents try to make sure that their children have their own bedrooms by putting up a curtain or doing some other things.

2) If it is, what would be the maximum age for this? (If there is one.)

Around 10.

3) Did any of you share a bedroom with a sibling of the opposite sex when you were growing up?

No, I didn't. I shared a bedroom with my elder sister until she entered a high school.
My elder brother had always his own bedroom.

4) Do you have the same situation with your own children now?

No, I don't. My children are boys, and they have already grown up. When they were growing up, they shared the bedroom, and my elder son entered the fourth grade in elementary school, they had their own bedrooms.

Bye for now,

Anne

•  Anne
• 2012年2月 8日 23:02

Hi david & everyone!

Thank you for new entry. I didn't comment without topic you gave us ,because "feel free" was sometimes difficult for me . Any way I personally have a lot to say about this topic. Well, here is my answer of your question.

1）Yes it is . As Fumie mentioned above, Japanese housing situation isn't good and most Japanese houses are smaller than other countries as you know . In my case , I didn't have my room until I was 17 or 18 years old . I have a elder brother and a elder sister ,but I didn't get along well with them until we became adult . My parent's gave a room for shear to my brother to me ,but we couldn't do that . then my room was closet（押し入れ）as draemon does （instead ,I was Nobita.）until I was 12 years old maybe . I have to admit I liked a little my room, but I couldn't do that any more , because I wasn't small enough to live in closet . Since then I didn't have my room. After so many years , fortunately , we moved to bigger house（市営住宅に抽選で当たりました）, so I managed to get my room . It was really hard for me until then. I often looked for a place to be alone .

2）I think that they can share a room when only they are kids though I can't say maximum age clearly.I agree with Fumies opinion.

Oh ! I have to go to bed now . I will write more later .

Good night everyone.

Zim.

•  Zim
• 2012年2月 9日 00:15

Hello David & everyone,

It is a first time to post my comment on your blog.
Actually I visited your blog last week by chance and liked it very much, so I tried to read through it from the beginning, but soon I found it was unlikely to succeed....

Well, here are my thoughts on your questions :

1)=> I share Fumie’s opinion in that the housing situation isn’t good in Japan, but I thought the situation might be slightly better in the country. Here I mean, generally rural people live in a bigger house, so that there’s more space for each family member.

2)=> I agree with Fumie.
Just in a large family like “Big Daddy’s family”, children have no other choice to accept their fate and sleep all crowded together until they become independent and leave home....

3)=> No. I have an elder brother, but I didn’t need to share the bedroom with him. Maybe because I grew up in the country as I mentioned above !?

4)=> I live in my own house with my husband and three-year-old son. And my husband and I
are not planning to have more children. Our house couldn’t be called “a big house”, but my son doesn’t need to share the bedroom, as he is an only child.

And as for “privacy”, I think Japanese do care not to look others’ “private matter”, though we’re very curious about it, but we are indeed less sensitive to “private (personal) space(room)”.

Personally I’m wondering how the elder generations managed the problem (sharing a bedroom), because they certainly had more siblings than we do ....

Bye for now...

•  YU
• 2012年2月 9日 00:51

Nice to meet you, YU!
You tried to read through from the first? I know your feeling, I gave up many times, too!
Anyway, enjoy reading and joining!

Hi, Tomo
Thank you for interesting examples for ''a'' and ''another''. I was very interested, and the uncommon usage of ''a'' really surprised me!

Hi, David

It is interesting to know there is no equivalence for a word ''privacy'' in Japanese except for the borrowed word プライバシー.

Here is my answer for the topic.

1) Yes. It is common that small children share one room regardless of their gender. In some cases, they prepare one big room for their kids when they build a new house, and the room is devided into two with a wall when kids reach certain age.

2) Same to Anne, I think it's around 10.

3) No. I have a sister and I shared a room with her untill I was 10 and she was 12.

4) I have a son and two daughters. Elder two shared one room until we moved house. That was when my son was 10 and my elder daughter was 8.

Hi, Zim
What a pity! You slept in a closet（押し入れ） every night!? You were like Doraemon or Harry Potter when you were a child! You must have been a very kind and patient boy.

•  panda
• 2012年2月 9日 10:32

Hi David,

You were not supposed to do a new entry this week, so I was a bit of surprised when I saw this entry. Of course, it's a good surprise:)
Anyway, here are my opinions to your questions:

1) This is a hard question. I don't think that it's normal but as other members said, I have to say 'Yes' when I think of the housing situation in Japan.
2) around 10??
3) Yes, I am from a big family so I had no choice.
4) Sorry, but I don't have any children so I can't answer this question, but I remember my niece and nephew sharing a room when they were in elementary school.

Hi YU,

Welcome to the blog, and I think that it's good for you to read the comments from the beginning. I know it's hard, though....

Bye for now,
amo

•  amo
• 2012年2月 9日 18:51

Hi everyone!

Pleased to meet you YU. I'm Zim and I'm also new here ,but everyone here is friendly and Kindly ,So you will enjoy here. I'm looking forward to talking with you.

Anyway , I continue where I left off last night.

3）No, I didn't. Like I said before, I had own room though my first one was closet.

Hi Panda. It was not so bad to live in closet . It was my snug den. Sometimes, I still want to get into closet in my room. ha ha ha.

4）I only have a daughter yet , and she is still 20 months.（←Is this the proper way ? I don't know how to express 1 歳〜ヶ月 in English. I couldn't find it. Does anyone know?）
Now we have a plan to have another baby in the future , but ,fortunately, if I will have third child in the future I have to make another room somewhere . Otherwise I have to go to closet again .

Anyway , It sounds interesting to talk about " privacy ". I suppose the meaning of privacy differ from one person to another.
By the way, I get the "English Writing Manual" , and I am reading it during a journey to and from work . It's useful for me ! Thank you for writing this book David!

Talk to you soon , and Good night .

Zim

•  ZIm
• 2012年2月10日 00:05

"Privacy" is one of the words that I hardly understand exact meaning. If you say you have right to protect personal privacy, that means you have something you don't want others see?? It's not that simple, is it? So please can anyone explain to me what is the definition of privacy!!

I have one elder brother. When he was in junior high school, he wanted to have his own room. My parents didn't like the idea that kids have their own room. Parents coundn't see what kids were doing if they stayed in the separated room. Kids may play, telling parents they study. But my parents gave him a room. The house didn't separated with doors. It had only "fusumas", and fusumas opened all the time. So they thought they could know what he's doing. I have one brother, as I said. My parents gave my brother a room which means I had my own one too. But we need to go through my room to go to the balcony. No one knocked on the fusumas, when they entered my room, of course. And my parents slept in the next room, and fusumas always opened, so it's like one room. Maybe I shared a bedroom with my parent??

My parents live in an 11-story apartment. Many kids lived in the same apartment. I think they all were growing up like that.

I am not sure if I will give my kids their room, when they grow up. If they want it, I would do, as long as the house has enough room to have their own room.

I Love Nutella

•  I Love Nutella
• 2012年2月10日 02:20

Hi I love Nutella.
I looked up the privacy in some dictionaries.
Here it is.
Longman dictionaly
privacy [uncountable]
1 the state of being able to be alone, and not seen or heard by other people:
2the state of being free from public attention:
英辞郎
privacy
【名】
人目を避けること、隠遁
プライバシー◆私生活を他人に知られたり、干渉されたりしない権利。
秘密［内密］にしていること
It seems very simple than we thought .
Come to think of it, there are many words we japanese don’t have that another countries have as daivid mentioned above ,So I agree with fumie’s privacy’s idea . I guess , the largest is in the difference of culture ,manners and customs. For example, we japanese used to live in house with Fusuma door as you did . I guess our life style makes our word , so that’s why we don’t have word of privacy . How do you feel about it?
日本語でも説明することが難しい事を書いたので、きちんと言いたい事が
書けてるか自信がありません。。。。
Can you make out what I wrote in English?

See you soon .

Zim

•  Zim
• 2012年2月10日 19:23