The Japanese reflexive zibun can be bound both locally and across clause boundaries. However, we show that in speech to children long-distance reflexive zibun does not occur, leading us to ask about children's knowledge. Although previous studies have reported that children have knowledge of long-distance zibun (Okabe 2008; Otsu 1997), we argue that those studies had methodological biases that could lead children to accept the long-distance antecedent even if it were not grammatically licensed. Using improved experimental materials, we show that children, unlike adults, disallow the long-distance antecedent for zibun, despite being able to access this antecedent for a non-local pronoun kare.