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  • Title: Every child should be a wanted child. Thinking about adolescent sexual consciousness and behavior in Japan.
    Author: Kitamura K.
    Journal: Integration; 1991 Dec; (30):40-4. PubMed ID: 12284679.
    Abstract:
    While the author considers adolescence to be a positive and creative period of developing sexuality and self-awakening, he is nonetheless troubled by a trend toward increasing premarital sexual activity, with a correspondingly elevated teen pregnancy rate in Japan. The social climate encourages adolescent pregnancy, posing medical, gynecological, and social problems. Teenage abortions have increased from 12, 123 to 29, 675 over the period 1975-1989; the proportion of teen abortions rising from 1.8% to 6.35% of all abortions. Those youths opting to bear children to term often only make for irresponsible parents. This increased preponderance of adolescence sexual activity may be attributed to a host of factors including a trend toward delayed marriage and increased years of schooling, increased acceptance and prevalence of single parent and dual income families, a burgeoning Japanese sex industry widely conveyed through mass media, wide dissemination of contraceptive methods and effective medical treatment of most sexually transmitted diseases, and inadequate, inappropriate sex education. Family and school environments, the nature of growing older, and the difference between male and female adolescent psychological development are also cited as accelerators of sex behavior. Adults are urged to foster happy family and school environments for youth, encourage extracurricular activities, and regard masturbation as positive release of sexual morality, but support the adoption and continuation of birth limiting methods such as oral contraceptives at the expense of the condom. Demographic data and survey findings on adolescent attitudes toward sex and actual adolescent sexual practice are included to support the author's argument.
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