This study, based primarily on quantitative surveys, aims to clarify the impacts of environments of apartment complexes on children's after-school lives by identifying differences in the playground environment and children's ways of playing among the three different types of apartment complexes—open-type apartment complexes, enclosed-type apartment complexes and open-type apartment complexes with enclosed blocks —that have changed forms over time in China.

  My particular focus in this study is on the impact on children's play and independent mobility. The children's independent mobility was determined based on the following three indicators: parental restrictions on children's behavior when they play outside, whether children can play as they wish within apartment complexes, and parental accompaniment of their children while playing outside.

  The study results show that children's independent mobility was highest in the upper grades in particular in open-type apartment complexes with enclosed blocks that provide an open and fulfilling play environment. On the other hand, the study found that the safe and secure space in fenced, enclosed-type apartment complexes improves the independent mobility of children in the lower grades within the premises of apartment complexes.

  In this study, first, to clarify the relationship between the physical environment of integrated complex facilities and cross-age interactions, we extracted scenes in which nursery school children and school children interact and examined the "room layout" and "room usage". From the perspective of "room layout," the following elements were found to promote interaction. 1)The entrance to the nursery school can be seen from the after-school nursery room, 2)The layout is so that you have to pass in front of the after-school nursery room to get to the nursery room, 3)There are rooms in the after-school nursery room that nursery school children need to enter, 4)Placed so that nursery school children can see school children playing in the halls and gardens, 5)The relationship between rooms and hallways is integrated and movement is easy.

  Next, by targeting a complex facility where all the school-age children are graduates of the nursery school within the same facility, we will be able to live in the same integrated complex facility that they are used to attending through interaction between different ages from infancy to childhood. To find out whether doing so led to a sense of security and attachment for children, and reflection on their own growth, we conducted an interview survey with school children and staff. It has become clear that integrated complex facilities, which are places that children have been accustomed to attending since infancy, give school children a sense of security.

  The aim of this paper is to discuss issues and developments in “watching over children during other activities.” This paper summarizes trends in the watching initiatives, including compilation of case studies by central ministries. Having done so, it classifies these initiatives by differences in project leadership and discusses issues faced in these initiatives. Classification revealed three types of the watching project: (1) projects undertaken by community resident organizations; (2) projects undertaken by commercial operators; and (3) coordinated projects undertaken by community resident organizations and commercial operators cooperatively. Type (3) projects were found to have better potential than Types (1) and (2) with regards to scope for expansion of operations and improvements in sustainability. At the same time, since information sharing among diverse project members and organizations is the key for Type (3) projects, the findings of this paper suggest the importance of information sharing on dangerous locations and suspicious individuals, as well as crime prevention activities between community resident organizations and commercial operators, and also between government and related personnel involved in such projects.

  The aim of this study was to consider the characteristics of the structure of the production environment at different ages through a survey on the actual setting of materials and tools by age group. The research method was data collection and analysis through a questionnaire survey of caregivers who had experience teaching classes of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children. The findings of the study revealed the following. 3-year-olds were set up in a way that ensured that they fully enjoyed the pleasure of making things themselves. 4-year-olds were in a setting that ensured that they were able to express their own images of making in a variety of ways. 5-year-olds were set up in a way that allowed the caregivers to identify and select items that the children needed or were in low demand as a result of their more refined production images.