TOKYO; The Tokyo metropolitan government has been studying the feasibility of establishing an ordinance to oblige parents and guardians to prevent schoolchildren from having sex, metropolitan officials said Tuesday.
Metropolitan government officials, however, are divided over the plan, whose sponsors say is aimed at putting a brake on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and abortions among the young. Some oppose it on grounds of privacy issues and believe it would be counterproductive.
...Gynecologist Tsuneo Akaeda, who is a member of the envisioned committee, said, "There are a lot of young girls who don't know how to refuse when a male she likes says he would like to have sex. So how about making an ordinance to ban youths from having sex prior to graduation from junior high school?"
However, Sayoko Ishii, a lawyer familiar with juvenile problems, said, "The situation would not change if we do not get the children themselves to think about sex through parent and child discussions and school education."
Japan Times 2002: It's time to say: Let's talk about sex, babies
In all my years of studying Japanese, I never learned the word I need right now. How do you say "nocturnal emission"? I need to know because my 10-year-old son is starting sex education at school, and I haven't told him that part of "the facts of life." His Japanese is pretty good, but I think he'll understand the lesson better if I explain it to him in English first. And give him the Japanese words he'll be hearing.
In Japan, seikyoiku (sex education) generally begins in fifth grade, when kids get a very basic lesson about how their bodies will change when they enter puberty. But Japanese children are maturing earlier. This year, for the first time, the health teacher at our school decided to start seikyoiku with the fourth-graders.