Abstract
Few studies have focused on the sexual behavior of Japanese during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and little is known about the level of sexual activity or the prevalence of unsafe sex among young Japanese. Drawing upon large, nationally representative sample surveys, this chapter documents the sexual behavior of Japanese youths (primarily those 18–34 years of age) since the 1970s, comparing trends in the timing of sexual initiation and the determinants of sexual behaviors with those in Western industrial countries. In examining risk behaviors that lead to unintended pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted infections, the analysis focuses on never-married persons because one of the major changes over the period reviewed has been an increase in premarital sex. Birth-cohort and gender differences are considered. The study identifies covariates associated with the likelihood of having premarital sex and not using contraception to shed light on those who are at greater risk of unintended pregnancy and of contracting sexually transmitted infections.
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Notes
- 1.
Kunio Kitamura of the Japan Family Planning Association and his colleagues conducted four rounds of a Survey on Life and Consciousness of Men and Women in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 (Kitamura 2009). These were nationally representative sample surveys on the sexual behavior of Japanese; their sample size was small, however: approximately 1,500 men and women aged 16–49 responded in each round. The proportions of men and women who had experienced sexual intercourse by their teens, twenties, and thirties reported by these surveys approximate our estimation in the current study.
- 2.
We calculated the experience rates for first marriage and first childbearing from age-specific first-marriage rates and age-specific first-birth fertility rates using data from Japanese vital statistics. In calculating age-specific first-marriage rates, we made a correction for underestimation because of the registration of first marriage is often delayed.
- 3.
We treated repeated abortions by the same person as single abortions by other women. Thus, it should be noted that, with regard to older women, the estimated experience rate may be higher than the actual rate.
- 4.
The incidence of induced abortion has decreased among teenagers since 2000 and among women in their early twenties since 2006, however. As a result, the incidence of abortion among birth cohorts after 1990 may fall below that of the preceding cohorts and reverse this trend.
- 5.
In 2001 the Japanese government started a national health promotion program called “Healthy Parents and Children 21.” The program set goals for sexual and reproductive health, such as decreased induced abortion rates among teens, decreased incidence rates of sexually transmitted infections among teens, and decreased incidence rates of postpartum depression. Since these plans target mainly adolescents and mothers in their pregnancy and childcare period, they tend to ignore unmarried young adults.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research for providing data from the Japanese National Fertility Surveys used in our analysis. Data from the Surveys on Sexual Behavior among Youth, conducted by the Japanese Association for Sex Education, were provided by the Social and Opinion Research Database Project, organized by the Faculty of Social Information, Sapporo Gakuin University. We also thank them for their kind assistance.
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Sato, R., Iwasawa, M. (2015). The Sexual Behavior of Adolescents and Young Adults in Japan. In: Ogawa, N., Shah, I. (eds) Low Fertility and Reproductive Health in East Asia. International Studies in Population, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9226-4_8
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