In many countries, it’s a teenage right of passage: the first kiss.
But a new survey of Japanese high school students shows that four out of five boys aged 15-18 have yet to reach this milestone.
For girls, things don’t look much different, with more than a quarter of high school girls having their first kiss.
This is the lowest number recorded since Japan first began asking teenagers about their sexual habits in 1974, and is potentially worrying in a country with one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
The study, conducted by the Japan Association for Sex Education (Jase), surveyed 12,562 students in junior high, high school and college, asking them questions ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse.
The survey is conducted every six years and the number of first kisses has been falling since 2005, when the figure was closer to one in two.
But this year’s report found that kissing isn’t the only area where numbers are declining. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it also showed a decline in the number of Japanese teenagers having sex.
Research shows that the proportion of high school boys who say they have sex has dropped 3.5 percentage points from 2017, to 12%. For high school girls, the share dropped 5.3 percentage points to 14.8 percent.
Experts pointed out that the impact of the new crown epidemic may be one of the reasons for this decline.
School closures and physical contact restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic may have affected many of these students because it occurred at “a sensitive time” [they were] Yusuke Hayashi, professor of sociology at Musashi University, said, “I started to become interested in sex.” Daily News quote.
However, the survey did find one area of growth: The number of teens across all demographics admitting to masturbating reached record high levels.
A separate investigation earlier this year found that Nearly half of marriages in Japan are sexless.
The findings come as Japan struggles to stem a declining birth rate, further stoking concerns. In 2023, the then Prime Minister warned The country’s low birth rate is pushing it to the brink of non-functioning.
Some researchers say the current population of 125 million could fall to less than 53 million by the end of the century. A range of other factors have also been cited as possible influences, including rising costs of living, more women in education and work, and greater access to contraception, leading women to choose to have fewer children.
According to the proportion of people over 65 years old measured by the United Nations, Japan has the oldest population in the world.
At the end of 2023, Japan stated for the first time One in 10 people in the country is 80 years or older.
In March, diaper maker Oji Holdings announced it would Stop making baby diapers Focus on making adult diapers.
