Sex Education in East Asia

Background:

The topic of sexual education is a contentious issue for many people. More specifically, it is an especially controversial topic for parents, religious affiliations, and government alike. The main reason being that some people believe that teaching young children sex education will encourage sexual activity amongst youth . In actuality, the purpose of sex education is to inform youth about sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and contraceptives in hopes of preventing STD’s and unplanned pregnancies.

Sex Education in East Asia:

In terms of the sex education debate, the media and scholars tend to focus on the US. Therefore, it would be interesting to shift the focus of sex education to East Asia – a generally more conservative region. Furthermore, the establishment of Confucianism most notably throughout Korea and China has had an impact on sexual activity amongst youth.

Japan:

In a country that contains a booming, “sex industry popularly known as fuzoku, which is reported to be worth about 10 trillion yen,” Japan’s youth seem to be very ill informed when it comes to sex education . It could be argued that this is in part perhaps due to the fact that sex education in Japan is a controversial topic, particularly in parliament. For example, in 2002, an arguably historic campaign against sex education had a significant impact on sex education in Japan. On May 29th, 2002, a woman named Eriko Yamatani raised the issue of in parliament of whether information taught in a sex education book was appropriate for school children to be reading . Eventually after much discussion and debate, the books were “withdrawn from schools and went out of print” . Not only were the books removed, it seems that this debate provoked the ministry of education to suggest that schools offer sex education on the condition of parental consent. .

Consequences of Limited Sex Education in Japan:

Unfortunately, the lack of sex education is having an unintended consequence on Japan’s youth. A primary concern being misinformation about sexually transmitted diseases. More specifically, the transmission and spread of HIV is a notable issue as there is a lot of misinformation and stigma surrounding the disease. Although in 2004, Japan only had 6,000 confirmed cases of HIV, a common belief that only foreigners are capable of contracting HIV and the shame associated with the disease, may mean hundreds of unconfirmed cases

Another concern with limited sex education is that it increases the chance that Japanese youth might not understand the importance of sexual consent. The topic is particularly important, as there is a subculture of erotic manga that objectifies school-aged girls. More specifically the comics feature common themes of male brutality and “domination of women” . Not only is it concerning that underage girls are being sexualized and arguably subjected to misogyny, these comics are in a way encouraging young Japanese men to disrespect women.

China:

While Japan’s youth face challenges regarding a lack of information about STD’s, it seems the primary concern for Chinese youth is contraception. According to one reporter, Talha Burki, “there are 13 million abortions in China every year” . Burki also goes onto suggest that there may be millions more unreported cases, resulting in the number of abortions being higher than that of live births . This statistic is concerning as it seems to indicate a lack of knowledge concerning contraceptives . Furthermore, it could be argued that the number of abortions also points to misinformation or limited information about conception.

Similar to Japan, some politicians and educators in China feel that “making contraceptives available would increase the likelihood” of adolescents engaging in sexual activity . Therefore, one could assume there is seemingly limited resources or education with respect to sexual health for China’s youth. Although certain politicians and educators have concerns, an interesting study conducted by researchers in China, shows the benefits of sex education.

In a study conducted over the span of twenty-one months, researchers educated participants in sexual health. The results where then split into a control group and an intervention group. As a result of receiving sexual education, the results from the intervention group demonstrated that those who received education showed a decrease in unintended pregnancies and were less likely to have been forced or forced someone to have sex with them (Wang, Bo, et al. "The Potential Of Comprehensive Sex Education In China: Findings From Suburban Shanghai." International Family Planning Perspectives 31.2 (2005): 63-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Jul. 2016. p.68). This fact suggests that not only is sex education beneficial for preventing unplanned pregnancies, but also for teaching consent and respect.

Korea:

Despite also being a highly conservative country, Korea has included mandatory sex education as part of their school curriculum Due to this fact, researchers have collected data on how effective sex education is on Korean youth. Researchers discovered that Korean students who had received sex education had reduced STD’s and un-planned pregnancies These two facts are un-surprising and are a likely outcome of sex education. However, receiving sex education also proved to lower both male and female attitudes about consent such as “sexual violence towards women […] and stigmatization of female victims .

In addition it is important to note Korean attitudes when it comes to condom use. In both Japan and China, the absenteeism of condoms has been an issue. As previously mentioned, the lack of condoms has seen an increase in STD’s amongst Japanese youth, and unintended pregnancies amongst Chinese youth. In Korea, the absence of a condom has resulted in STD’s and unplanned pregnancies. It is interesting that all three of these countries have a low condom use. Researchers have contributed this low rate to “ancient Chinese medical beliefs, which encourage a balance of natural body rhythms” Researchers further went onto suggest that wearing a condom interrupts the balance of the body, hence some resistance for East Asians to use protection . Perhaps this fact indicates that sex education may need to be tailored to different cultures and values.

Conclusion:

As previously mentioned, most of the sex education debate focuses on the United States. It seems though however, that researchers and the media should start focusing on sex education in East Asia and the unique challenges that different cultures and beliefs shape sex education.

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