Japanese Tire Irons

My son got a flat on his bike the other day, a first for us here in Japan. So yesterday, on our way back from the Katayama Municipal Pool, we stopped at a bike shop to get the fixins for flat fixing.

The first joint had a patch kit, which we purchased, but no levers. We then stopped at another shop, they also didn't have any levers. At this point, I'm detecting a trend & I ask my wife to query the shop proprietor about "WTF is w/the no tire irons in Japanese bike shops?" as this sort of interchange is still a little beyond my Japanese abilities.

The proprietor said he just uses screw drivers, like apparently most bike shops in Japan do and I did on my first bike when I was in second or third grade.