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「アブスティネンス・オンリー(禁欲だけを強調する)」性教育問題に関する記事

Articles on issues of "abstinence-only" sex education

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This page last updated 2002/10/03

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Lambda Legal

AFP Monday September 9, 12:11 PM

Sex education booklet spawns controversy in Japan

A sex-education booklet for Japanese teenagers has triggered a dispute about whether teaching them contraceptive methods in detail is too radical as abortions among the young continue to rise.

At the centre of controversy is the 32-page "Love and Body Book," compiled by the Mothers' and Children's Health and Welfare Association, a privately funded organisation supervised by the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry.

Using diagrams of male and female anatomy to demonstrate what physical changes teenagers experience through adolescence, the booklet also explains contraceptive measures with matter-of-fact illustrations explaining how to use male and female-use condoms.

It also notes it is "important to think by yourself, have your own opinions and act according to your own will."

The association had distributed 1.27 million copies of the booklet to municipal governments across the nation as of early May targetting students at junior high schools aged between 12 and 15.

It is part of the ministry's project to curb unwanted pregnancies, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and other sex-related problems among teenagers.

The number of abortions among girls under 20 reached 46,511 cases in 2001 to hit a record high for the sixth consecutive year, according to a health ministry survey. The number means nearly 13 girls in every 1,000 aged between 15 and 19 underwent abortion operations, and eight in 1,000 aged between 12 and 19.

Despite the apparent need for guidance, the booklet has drawn the wrath of traditionalists, prompting some local governments to stop handing the booklet out to children. The association has scrapped plans for further distribution and collected unwanted copies.

"It is a casual recommendation for free sex," which was advocated in the 1970s, said Eriko Yamatani, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Party, who first raised the the issue in parliament in May.

"It stirs up interest in sex ... while not teaching morals. Sex is something sacred. Those children are at the age when they broaden their minds by reading literary works, but (the booklet) leapfrogs to the world of lifting up skirts and pulling down panties."

The booklet tackles common concerns among teenagers, including attractiveness to the opposite sex, pornography, masturbation, rape and sexual abuse and homosexuality - issues rarely touched upon at schools.


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Daily Yomiuri September 8, 2002

Prudish pols, parents stymie straight sex talk

Yoshimi Nagamine

A sex education booklet designed for middle school students has been recalled from schools and its printing suspended within four months of its publication after its publisher was criticized by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry for the book's content and received protest phone calls and letters from local legislatures and parents organizations.

The booklet, titled "Love and Body Book for Adolescence," defined middle school students as "an age group that develops an interest in kissing and sex." It explains various matters related to sex, such as how to use a condom correctly, in plain terms with illustrations.

It says that condoms and birth control pills fail 12 percent and 1 percent of the time, respectively, and urged girls to consult a doctor before taking the pill because it is effective in preventing pregnancy if used properly.

Japan belatedly approved low-dosage birth control pills in 1999. It is thus not surprising that sex education for adolescents refers to their use.

However, Education, Science and Technology Minister Atsuko Toyama, in a Diet session in late May, criticized the booklet for its straightforward talk, saying "There is no need to teach middle school students about sex to such an extent."

Her comment prompted local legislatures and parents organizations in Mie, Fukuoka and other prefectures to make protest telephone calls or send protest letters to the publisher, the Mothers' and Children's Health and Welfare Association, which is under the supervision of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The protesters argued that the booklet contained descriptions of contraception methods and that it was not right to encourage middle school students to use birth control pills.

The association immediately decided to stop printing the booklet and recalled thousands of copies from middle schools nationwide.

It notified all middle schools that had received the booklets that it would pay all expenses if they wanted the booklets recalled. The Education, Science and Technology Ministry officials were happy with the association's decision. One of them said, "We're glad that biased information will not be provided to middle school students anymore."

The booklet episode aroused my interest in Japanese teenagers' attitudes toward sex, and recently I visited Tsuneo Akaeda, a doctor who gives teenage girls health advice in a corner of a hamburger shop once a week in Roppongi, Tokyo.

That day, an 18-year-old high school girl came to him to seek advice on a venereal disease she had contracted.

She said that she had been diagnosed with candidiasis at a gynecological clinic and that she was taking medicine provided by the clinic.

She told Akaeda she had never had her past partners use condoms so she did not know from whom she had contracted the disease. "It can be cured with medication, so I don't to have to tell my (current) boyfriend about it, do I?" the girl asked Akaeda.

She said she had sex for the first time with a 24-year-old man who seduced her when she was a middle school student. She said she learned about sex from her friends and magazines, and had been constantly under pressure to have sex at a young age.

She did not ask the man to use a condom and had never asked any of her partners to use one.

"Boys don't like to use condoms. I don't like my partner to use a condom either because it inhibits sexual pleasure. It's also troublesome to tell my partner to use a condom every time, and using a condom makes sex awkward," she said.

Japan is the only industrialized country to see its rate of gonorrhea rise since the latter half of the 1990s.

A survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed that 394 males and 553 females for every 100,000 people are infected with the disease. The rate of infection among women in their late teens and early 20s is increasing noticeably.

"Young people nowadays are misled by sex information flooding society, and they have astonishingly little knowledge about their bodies, contraception and diseases," Akaeda said.

Condoms and pills seldom appear in sex stories carried in magazines, comic books and adult videos. Some adult service operators even offer a "no condom" service to attract customers, and provocative information is rampant, giving girls the wrong ideas about sex.

According to another survey by the ministry, a record 46,500 abortions were performed on teenage girls in 2001, marking the sixth consecutive year-on-year increase. This suggests that abortions among teenagers is becoming a serious social problem.

The age at which people first have sex is getting lower each year, reflecting social changes such as the emergence of Internet or cell phone dating services.

However, government officials are merely telling teenagers not to have sex. This attitude turns a blind eye to reality.

Shinya Iwamuro, an official of the Kanagawa prefectural government's Atsugi Health Office who teaches sex education in local middle schools and helped write the sex education booklet, angrily criticized those who caused the booklet to be recalled.

"Those who opposed the booklet sent it to the graveyard without offering an alternative," said Iwamuro. "Children are the victims, as they have been deprived of an opportunity to get scientific and reliable knowledge about sex amid the barrage of sexual content flooding society through TV programs, books and other materials."

Nagamine is a deputy editor of The Yomiuri Shimbun's Commentary and Analysis Department.


Copyright 2002 The Yomiuri Shimbun

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