Only one in five boys in high school in Japan have experienced their first kiss - the lowest figure since 1974, according to a survey conducted by the Japan Association for Sex Education (JASE), involving over 12,500 students, published in the newspaper The Mainichi. The poll, conducted in the 2023 academic year, revealed that only 22.8 per cent of boys had experienced their first kiss while 27.5 per cent of girls in the same age group had got their first kiss.
Since hitting the peak in 2005, the proportion of high school students, who have had their first kiss, has been steadily declining in Japan. Additionally, the ratio of those who had sexual intercourse also fell by 3.5 points to 12 per cent among high school boys, while the figure plummeted by 5.3 points to 14.8 per cent among high school girls.
Experts have attributed the COVID-19 pandemic as the likely cause for the fall in numbers as high schoolers were forced to stay at home and urged to avoid the 'three Cs': crowded places, confined spaces and close-contact settings.
Tamaki Kawasaki, a columnist and sociology lecturer said the Japanese youth preferred to stay home and watch sexual content alone, which threatened the already low birthrate.
"It shows that the trend is for people to move away from real, physical sexual activity, even at a time when it's natural for them to be sexually active," Kawasaki was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
"Instead, there is a stronger tendency for them to stay home and watch sexual content alone. If teens, who represent the country's future, continue like this then it is hard to see any improvement in the declining birthrate."
Also read | Japan Birth Rate Hit Record Low In 2023 As Nation's Population Crisis Deepen
Declining birth rate and ageing population
Japan has been hit with the double whammy of a declining birth rate and an ageing population in recent years. According to government data, the number of babies born in the country fell for an eighth consecutive year in 2023 to 758,631.
Meanwhile, the number of citizens aged 65 and over, reached a staggering 36.25 million in 2024, constituting 29.3 per cent of the overall population.
