Number of high school boys in Japan experiencing first kiss hits record low

Youth intimacy declines in Japan as only about one-fifth of high school boys have had their first kiss – the lowest rate recorded since 1974

Fewer Japanese high school students are experiencing their first kiss, a new survey has revealed.

Only about one-fifth of high school boys have had their first kiss, the lowest rate recorded since the Japan Association for Sex Education (JASE) began its national survey on youth sexuality in 1974.

Just 22.8 per cent of boys and 27.5 per cent of girls aged 15-18 have kissed someone, according to a recent survey by JASE. These figures represent a significant drop since 2017 and continue a downward trend since the mid-2000s.

The Tokyo-based group, which conducts the survey every six years, announced the latest results on 3 November.

Conducted between August 2023 and March 2024, the questionnaire received 12,562 valid responses, with participants that included 4,621 junior high school students, 4,321 high school students, and 3,614 university students.

The association reported that 12 per cent of junior and senior high school students had engaged in sexual intercourse, including 14.8 per cent of girls – a decrease of 3.5 and 5.3 percentage points, respectively.

The association attributes this partly to social restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, which may have stifled in-person interactions during key developmental years. “Limited contact with others during the coronavirus outbreak may have lowered the rate of sexual activity among junior and senior high school students,” the survey said.

Meanwhile, solitary sexual habits, like masturbation, have risen, possibly due to increased exposure to sexual content online.

Some experts suggest this shift reflects a broader disengagement from physical intimacy, potentially impacting Japan’s already low birth rate.

Yusuke Hayashi, professor of quantitative sociology at Musashi University in charge of analysing the survey results, told Mainichi: “The combination of school closures and restrictions on face-to-face contact due to the coronavirus pandemic at a sensitive time when junior and senior high school students are beginning to become interested in sexuality is believed to have had an impact.”

Regarding the rise in self-pleasuring experience, Mr Hayashi said: “Since it is observed regardless of the presence or absence of sexual partners, this may be due to increased exposure to sexual expressions in manga and other media, rather than as a substitute for interpersonal sexual behaviour.”

Japan has been grappling with a low birth rate for many years now. The number of births in Japan for the first half of this year, in fact, dropped to the lowest since 1969, preliminary government data showed in September.

Japan marked 350,074 births between January to June, which was a 5.7 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year, the health ministry’s preliminary report said.

This continued the trend of declining births over the past few years, with the total number of births in 2023 also being the lowest since records began in 1899.