Japan's Toyoake City Approves Voluntary Two Hours a Day Smartphone Guideline

Two hours for leisure, with no fines or device checks

Toyoake City in Japan's Aichi Prefecture has approved an ordinance asking residents to keep recreational smartphone use to two hours a day, setting a shared benchmark for households without introducing penalties. The measure passed the city council by 12 votes to seven and is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2025.

The recommendation covers all residents, rather than children alone. Time spent using a phone for work or study falls outside the two hours, as do essential uses such as caregiving and access to public services. The city is asking people to reconsider entertainment habits while continuing to use their devices for everyday responsibilities.

Children are also the focus of suggested evening cutoffs. Those in elementary school or younger should stop using devices by 9 pm, while junior high students and older students should stop by 10 pm. City leaders connect those recommendations to better sleep, steadier family routines and healthy child development.

No fines, inspections or reporting requirements accompany the ordinance. Officials will not track personal devices, and residents will be responsible for judging their own recreational use. The city has not defined a method for checking which activities count as work or study.

Supporters see a simple community standard that could help families manage late scrolling and device dependence. Critics argue that household rules should reflect individual circumstances, including children who depend on a phone for comfort, friendship or safety. The practical question for Toyoake is how much a voluntary recommendation can change daily habits when nobody is required to follow it.

What counts toward the daily recommendation?

The ordinance places social media, gaming, short video apps and browsing unrelated to work or homework within recreational use. Similar leisure activities also count toward the recommended two hours. The focus is the time people choose to spend on entertainment, rather than every minute a smartphone screen is active.

Calls, messages and apps used for employment, education, public services or caregiving fall outside that frame. A resident answering a work message or a student completing an assignment would therefore be using the phone for a different purpose from someone watching entertainment clips.

Some activities are harder for families to classify. Critics point to educational videos watched for enjoyment, which may count as leisure while still giving a child something useful to learn. Residents will have to make those judgments themselves because the city has provided no verification system.

City leaders describe the two hours as a guideline, not a rule backed by punishment. Its purpose is to start conversations and provide families, schools and community groups with a common reference point. Households are being encouraged to notice when entertainment time keeps increasing and adjust their routines.

Schools and neighborhood groups are likely to become places where residents discuss the recommendation. The ordinance's reach across age groups also means that parents and other adults are being asked to examine their own habits, alongside those of children.

Why sleep is central to the policy

Toyoake officials describe smartphones as valuable tools while warning that excessive use can disrupt home life and push bedtime later. Less sleep can then affect the following day, reaching beyond the household into classrooms and workplaces. Youth health is a central reason for the measure, even though it applies to everyone.

Japan combines widespread smartphone ownership with longstanding concerns about sleep among students. Toyoake's evening cutoffs turn that concern into specific times that families can use when deciding when devices should be put away.

Recreational use receives particular attention because it can take time away from sleep and physical movement. Short video feeds and mobile games deliver rapid rewards, making another clip or another round tempting even when a person intends to stop. At night, that repeated decision can gradually delay bedtime.

Blue light from screens near bedtime can shift circadian rhythms, the body's daily timing system that helps regulate sleep and waking. Notifications can also interrupt attention during homework, repeatedly drawing a student away from the task in front of them.

Public health researchers have linked heavier screen use among schoolchildren with later bedtimes, shorter sleep and daytime sleepiness. Much of that research identifies associations, meaning those patterns occur together. Professional groups advise families to establish periods without devices, keep phones out of bedrooms overnight and choose activities without screens before sleep.

The city is translating those concerns into a number that is easy to remember. Its two hours recommendation and evening cutoffs address related parts of the same routine: how long people use their phones for leisure, and how late that use continues.

A shared standard divides opinion

Supporters regard the ordinance as a gentle prompt with little intrusion. Parents facing requests for more time online could refer to a citywide recommendation when setting boundaries. Teachers, families and community groups would also have a shared way to discuss device dependence without singling out a particular student.

Teachers often describe students arriving tired, especially after major releases of content in social apps or games. Advocates hope a common standard will make discussions about those habits easier and encourage households to think about how evening entertainment affects the next school day.

Critics say a single limit cannot account for every household. Some children use phones to manage anxiety or maintain friendships when they feel isolated. Others rely on them for safety while traveling alone. A recommendation based mainly on elapsed time may fit those situations awkwardly.

Online friendships can also carry their own pressures. Critics warn that teenagers who already feel obliged to stay connected could face shame over their screen totals. They favor support, empathy and digital literacy training, which helps people understand and manage their use of technology, alongside conversations about limits.

Privacy concerns extend beyond formal enforcement. Although there will be no device checks, some residents worry that community pressure could lead families to share screen time records as evidence that they are following the recommendation. Officials have presented the ordinance as a tool for personal reflection, rather than a scorecard for comparing households.

How Toyoake compares with other approaches

Toyoake is using a policy style already familiar in Japan: persuasion, shared expectations and cooperation without punishment. Kagawa Prefecture introduced a nonbinding guideline in 2020 encouraging minors to limit gaming on weekdays and finish device use by specified times at night.

Kagawa's policy attracted national attention and a legal challenge. It operated largely as a statement of values, rather than a restriction supported by penalties. Toyoake follows that voluntary model but broadens the audience to all residents and focuses on total recreational smartphone use.

China takes a tighter approach to online gaming by minors, restricting play to short windows on weekends and holidays. Accounts are tied to real names. South Korea previously used a youth shutdown law to block late gaming for younger teenagers, then repealed it in 2021 after a long debate about effectiveness and rights.

Several European countries and the United Kingdom have issued guidance aimed at limiting phone use during the school day. Many school districts in the United States require students to put phones in lockers or sealed pouches. Those measures concentrate on particular settings, while Toyoake's recommendation extends into residents' leisure time at home.

Stricter restrictions can quickly reduce specific activities, but they also bring demands for families, platforms and schools that must apply them. Voluntary standards depend instead on communication, social expectations and practical tools. Toyoake is relying on residents finding a clear benchmark useful enough to adopt.

The relevant milestones show how the city's decision fits into that sequence:

• 2020: Kagawa Prefecture introduced a voluntary guideline covering gaming time for minors and evening device cutoffs.
• 2021: South Korea repealed its youth gaming shutdown law.
• September 23, 2025: Toyoake's ordinance had been approved by 12 of the city council's 19 members.
• October 1, 2025: Toyoake's voluntary recommendation is scheduled to take effect.

Can a voluntary recommendation change habits?

A simple rule of thumb can help residents notice behavior that otherwise passes without much thought. Two hours provides an easy reference, while built in smartphone dashboards let users see how much time different apps occupy. Regular community discussion and quickly felt personal benefits can make voluntary cooperation easier to sustain.

Small changes can support the recommendation. Silencing evening notifications or moving a charger out of a bedroom can reduce interruptions and the temptation to keep checking a phone. When families combine those changes with limits, sleep and concentration can improve within days.

The absence of penalties leaves adoption uneven. Some residents may welcome the recommendation and discuss their progress with friends or in classrooms. Others may ignore it, particularly when phone entertainment fills an otherwise empty part of the day.

Many experts recommend pairing time limits with appealing alternatives, including outdoor play, clubs that meet in person, reading, exercise and creative work on paper. A household that plans something enjoyable after putting devices away gives its members a reason to stop, rather than leaving an unfilled space in the evening.

Toyoake's approach therefore depends on more than whether residents remember the number. Family conversations, practical adjustments and activities away from screens will shape how the guideline fits into everyday life.

Practical ways households can respond

Residents who choose to follow the recommendation can begin with tools already available on their phones. Apple's iOS Screen Time and Android Digital Wellbeing show daily use and provide options for app timers and scheduled breaks. Those totals can help people understand their routines, while they make their own judgments about which uses are recreational.

Families can then choose changes that address their particular pressure points, whether that is constant notifications, automatic video playback or checking a phone after getting into bed. The ordinance's suggested evening cutoffs provide a time around which to organize those choices.

• Use iOS Screen Time or Android Digital Wellbeing to review daily totals.
• Set timers for social media and video apps, and stop when the alert appears.
• Schedule Downtime or Bedtime settings to pause notifications after 9 pm or 10 pm, as appropriate.
• Move tempting apps away from the home screen to reduce habitual tapping.
• Turn off autoplay where possible so one clip does not automatically lead to another.
• Charge phones outside bedrooms overnight.
• Try grayscale or focus modes in the evening to make the phone less appealing.
• Keep the dinner table and the hour before sleep free of devices.
• Plan specific entertainment periods, then move to an activity away from the phone.
• For students, create a school focus mode that hides entertainment until homework is finished.

Household circumstances still matter. A useful routine needs to leave room for work, study, caregiving and necessary communication, the activities the city places outside its recreational recommendation. The same conversation can address both how to reduce entertainment time and how to preserve access to a phone when it is needed.

What the city could do after October 1

City offices may promote the guideline through schools, community centers and clinics. Progress could be assessed through voluntary surveys, school feedback about sleep and tardiness, and participation in workshops. Parent groups could also share anonymous summaries of screen time data to describe trends without identifying individuals.

Those are possible ways to support and assess the recommendation, rather than a settled program of compulsory monitoring. With compliance voluntary, the city's immediate task is to make the benchmark familiar and useful enough for residents to consider changing their routines.

If residents seek more help, Toyoake could work with pediatricians, sleep specialists and counselors on seminars. Short guides in multiple languages and checklists for teachers are other possible forms of support. Libraries and youth centers could organize activities in the late afternoon, giving students a reason to put phones away before dinner.

These steps would make the recommendation more visible and convenient without adding enforcement. For residents, the concrete change on October 1 is a shared public benchmark: two hours of recreational smartphone use a day, paired with earlier stopping times for children. Decisions about applying it will remain in households.

Key Points

• Toyoake City in Aichi Prefecture approved a voluntary recommendation of two hours a day for recreational smartphone use.
• The ordinance passed by 12 votes to seven and is scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2025.
• The recommendation applies to all residents. Work, study, caregiving and public service uses fall outside the two hours.
• Suggested device cutoffs are 9 pm for elementary school children and younger, and 10 pm for junior high students and older students.
• There are no fines, inspections, reporting requirements or tracking of personal devices.
• Supporters cite sleep, family routines and child development. Critics cite different household needs, online support and possible social pressure.
• Phone settings and activities away from screens can help residents who choose to follow the guideline.