In May of this year (2024), a colleague and I traveled with a group of 15 American college students to Tokyo, Japan. The trip was part of an honors course on play across cultures. Before leaving, the students learned about developments in play, play therapy, and cultural similarities and differences in play. They also observed children at play in the United States so that they would have some points of comparison.

As the students learned in class, previous research suggests that play looks different when comparing children from Asian ethnic backgrounds to those from Western backgrounds. For example, pretend play is less common among Korean-Americans than Anglo-Americans (Farver & Lee Shin, 1997). Additionally, as opposed to the fantastic and danger themes common in Anglo-American play, Korean-American children may be more likely to reenact every day activities and family role themes.

Similarly, Farver et al. (1995) found more parallel and less pretend play among Korean-American 3- to 5-year-olds, and reported their play to be more highly structured, more cooperative, and less competitive and aggressive compared to their Anglo-American peers. This study and another by Parmar and colleagues (2008) found that Asian-American parents spent more time on pre-academic activities with their children, and less time engaged in fantasy play.

When Japanese children do engage in pretend play, it is often very rule-based. As Takahashi (2016) found, for Japanese children, “playing roles means playing rules” (p. 94).........

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