PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK: Hanegi Play Park is the playground health and safety forgot. Photo / Supplied
PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK: Hanegi Play Park is the playground health and safety forgot. Photo / Supplied
It's been dubbed the "land that health and safety forgot" as this Japanese children's park encourages young visitors to play with knives and light fires.
Tokyo's Hanegi Play Park operates on the philosophy that children flourish and develop better when not mollycoddled by safety restrictions.
In order to do thisthey have assembled a set of toys that look more they belong more in a hardware store than a playground.
Currently, Japanese society is obsessed with the notion of the Hikikomori: a generation of reclusive teens and young adults that are known as "room hermits".
In 2016 the Japanese cabinet survey recorded that there were 541,000 young people between 15 and 39 suffering from this acute social withdrawal, reported CNN.
Hikikomori: Japan says it has an issue with a generation of 'shutins'. Photo / Getty Images
From societal pressure to overly protective upbringings – there are a variety of vices that Japan blames for this generation who have shut themselves away, preferring to play video games in parents' basements.
The mollycoddled child and, worse still, overly-protective parent have become totems.
At Hanegi, the park appears to have veered wildly away from this mode of helicopter parenting.
However behind the chaotic appearance is some semblance of order and practical learning.
