Correlates of Same-Sex Sexual Activities among Millennial Japanese Youth

Hiroshi Kojima, Waseda University

Japan is known as a forerunner in ‘sex recession’ which started in the early 2000’s among the Millennial youth with sex hesitancy, while the sexless phenomenon among married couples was observed in the 1990’s. However, their sexual activities, particularly same-sex sexual experience during adolescence have not been analyzed. The present study attempts to analyze the correlates of their same-sex sexual activities, drawing on data from the 2000 survey on sexual behaviors among college students. The percentage of students with same-sex experience is relatively high: 15.6% among females and 9.7% among males. According to a preliminary logit analysis (full model) for both sexes (Table 1), sexual activities below age 16, the experience of sexual activities without consent at ages 14-15, high BMI, insomia at ages 14-18, acne at ages 14-18, hyperhidrosis at ages 14-18 and bad breath at ages 14-18 have positive correlation, while male, college in Tokyo, and the same number of male and female friends at ages 11-14 have negative correlation. It is likely that their concern over HIV/AIDS encouraged their earlier same-sex sexual activities, particularly among females and that female hesitancy of opposite-sex sexual activities turned male students to hesitancy particularly because of worse economic prospects.

Keywords: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Gender Dynamics, Human Capital, Education, and Work

See extended abstract.