Can this city make residents put down their smartphones?

Smartphones help passengers pass the time on a train near Toyoake, Japan, on Sept 29, 2025. Authorities in Toyoake introduced a rule limiting the use of digital devices to two hours per day outside of work and school. — Kentaro Takahashi/The New York Times

The idea came to Masafumi Kouki, the energetic mayor of the Japanese city of Toyoake, on a summer day as he pondered rising truancy rates at local schools. Toyoake’s nearly 68,000 residents, especially children, seemed increasingly addicted to their digital devices, he thought, so why not try to reduce the amount of time they spent staring at screens?

Within a few days, Kouki and his staff had drafted a 2,400-character ordinance limiting the use of smartphones, tablets, game consoles and computers to two hours per day for Toyoake’s residents, not counting work and school hours. The ordinance, which goes into effect Oct 1, will make Toyoake one of the first cities in Japan to attempt to use the platform of the government to get its citizens to put down their phones.