Japanese Sex Education Association: "Percentage of High School Students Who Have Kissed Drops to 20% Range... Likely Due to COVID-19 Impact"

Japan Sexual Education Association, Nationwide Survey on Youth Sexual Behavior
22.8% of Boys, 27.5% of Girls Have Kissed
"Impact of Reduced Social Contact Due to COVID-19"

The proportion of Japanese male and female high school students who have experienced kissing has dropped to around 20%.

On the 3rd, Asahi Shimbun reported, "According to the 'National Survey on Youth Sexual Behavior' conducted by the Japan Sexual Education Association from August last year to March this year, involving 12,562 Japanese middle school, high school, and university students, 22.8% of male high school students and 27.5% of female high school students responded that they have kissed before."

This survey is conducted every six years, and compared to the previous survey in 2017, the rates for male and female high school students dropped by 11.1 percentage points and 13.6 percentage points, respectively. This is similar to the 1987 survey results, where 23.1% of male high school students and 25.5% of female high school students reported having kissed. In the 2005 survey, about one in two male and female high school students responded that they had kissed.

The rate of sexual intercourse experience among high school students also decreased by 3.5 percentage points for males and 5.3 percentage points for females compared to the 2017 survey, recording 12.0% for males and 14.8% for females. Locally, it is analyzed that the COVID-19 pandemic overlapped with the period when students begin to take an interest in sex, leading to reduced interpersonal contact.

In the case of Korea, according to a survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs last year, 8.9% of males and 6.0% of females responded that they had their first sexual experience before the age of 19. Among 238 respondents who answered that their first sexual experience was before age 19, the presence of sexual partners during high school (multiple responses allowed) was highest in the third year of high school (male 57.1%, female 54.1%), followed by the second year (male 47.1%, female 49.0%) and the first year (male 36.4%, female 32.7%).

Also, according to the 2021 Youth Sexual Culture Survey Research Report by Aha Seoul Metropolitan Youth Sexual Culture Center, among 247 high school students, 56.2% responded that they had experienced kissing, and 36.1% had experienced kissing with a romantic partner (multiple responses allowed). The survey also found that 8% of high school students had sexual intercourse experience.