A Window on Trends and Shifting Interpretations of Youth Sexual Behaviour: The Japan Association of Sex Education's 'Wakamono no Sei' Hakusho Reports from 1975 to 2007

Abstract

The sexual awareness (seiishiki) and behaviour of Japanese youth first emerged as areas of public concern in the early 1970s. In 1971, the Prime Minister's Office1 (PMO) carried out a questionnaire survey of a nationally representative group of young people focusing on sexual awareness (Sōrifu Seishōnen Taisaku Honbu 1972). Following this, in 1974, the PMO commissioned the Japanese Association of Sex Education (JASE) to carry out a more comprehensive survey that also investigated the sexual behaviour of Japanese youth. This was published in 1975 (JASE 1975). These two surveys, commissioned by the government, signalled the new legitimacy of youth sexuality as a topic of research and as such lifted the taboo that had been in place for over four decades.2 Since 1974, JASE has carried out a total of six national surveys (1974, 1981, 1987–1988, 1993–1994, 1999 and 2005–2006) focusing on the sexual awareness and behaviour of Japanese youth. Over time, the range of questions and the youth target group have been expanded. This research offers an unprecedented view of the (heterosexual) sexual awareness, values and behaviour of young people living in both the large cities and more provincial towns in Japan over a period of 32 years. This is a period that saw remarkable changes in the context of youth in Japan with increasing affluence, a massive extension of tertiary level education and the advent of the ‘information age’. It was also a period of rapid change in the status and lives of Japanese women. A key question raised in the surveys is in what ways have these changes impacted on youth sexuality. There is no other set of data in Japan that offers such a comprehensive overview of trends in youth sexuality. Indeed, even within an international context, these surveys are unique for the breadth of ground that they cover and the fact that data on a core set of questions have been collected at regular intervals over a period of 32 years.