The bumpy road to socialise nature: sex education in Japan

This study was prompted by an empirical puzzle: why is sex education in schools so underdeveloped in Japan compared to many other industrialised societies? On the one hand, formal pedagogy under state policy is conservative, emphasising reproductive and prophylactic purposes rather than a comprehensive understanding of sexuality. On the other hand, however, Japan has a highly visible sexual environment where a variety of commercial sex activities are tolerated and even encouraged. The aim of the paper is to provide an integrated picture of these apparently contradictory trends by examining the nexus of political, economic and sociocultural factors that affect sex education in contemporary Japan.