Japan has seen a dramatic drop in the number of second level students engaged in sexual activity for the first time since 
the 1970s, according to a new survey.
The research, conducted by the Japanese Association for Sex Education (JASE) that 15pc second level boys had had sex compared to 27pc in 2005, a 50pc drop in seven years.
The decline in sexual activity was less marked among girls, decreasing from 30pc in 2005 to 24pc in 2012.
The trend held true among their counterparts in college. Some 14pc less women and seven percent fewer men had sex than in 2005.
JASE, which surveyed 7,700 students from October 2011 to February, found today’s Japanese are not simply avoiding intercourse; they are avoiding all forms of physical intimacy.
The downward trend extended to how many teens and young adults had never even kissed.
More than one-third of men in college had not kissed; nearly two-thirds of high school males had not. Slightly more females had experienced a first kiss – numbers still down significantly over 2005.
The results marked the first decline since JASE began taking the survey in the mid-1970s.
By contrast, in 2011 some 47pc of American secondary students said that they had sex at least once. Only 11pc of college-age women and 14pc of college-age men were virgins.
In Ireland, the average age of first sexual intercourse is 17.