Japan is safe enough for kids to commute alone

While my family was on the way back from Tokyo, I saw this kid at the train station. In the U.S., it would be criminal for a child like him to be unattended, but in Japan this is normal.
"What accounts for this unusual degree of independence? Not self-sufficiency, in fact, but 'group reliance,' according to Dwayne Dixon, a cultural anthropologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Japanese youth. 'Kids learn early on that, ideally, any member of the community can be called on to serve or help others,' he says." [Source]

I think it's remarkable that, in a city of -- figuratively -- bazillions, parents can trust society enough to leave their kids unattended.

It calls into question how advanced I think my "greatest country in the world" really is.