Japanese pop culture is sexually explicit, but sex education is wanting

While sexual images are everywhere, Japanese classrooms still regard sex as an issue of biological reproduction

Originally published on Global Voices

Sexualized imagery featuring female bodies saturates Japan’s public spaces — from magazine covers in convenience stores to billboards on city streets — and has become widely normalized. 

In October 2025, a petition on Change.org, “Protect Our Children’s Future — Say No to Sexually Explicit Magazines in Convenience Stores,” gathered over 5,000 signatures, urging stores to remove adult magazines and protect minors. It argues that the explicit content is a form of sexual harassment and will have an adverse impact on children in establishing their selfhood.

Around the same time, writer Emi S. reflected in her blog on Medium: 

When I was a child, I remember seeing billboards with women’s faces and prices displayed beside them. And yet, I don’t recall feeling any discomfort at the time. Because it was simply there — treated as something normal.

Emi S raised an important point regarding the norm of objectifying women in Japanese popular culture. Many women accept sexualized images as if they are normal, to the extent that they do not question such a norm, and when they do express discomfort, their voices are dismissed as overreaction.

Sexual images and Japanese popular culture

Where does such a norm come from? Japan’s post-war media and popular-culture boom created a visual ecosystem where manga, anime, and print magazines flourished. The convenience-store model that spread through the 1980s and 1990s made magazines — including pornographic publications — accessible in everyday life.

According to a 1989 survey cited by Nippon.com, 92.3 percent of convenience stores sold pornographic magazines. Later, the rise of moe aesthetics in anime and manga further blurred the line between entertainment and eroticism. This is particularly true in the rise of “lolicon” content, where young or young-looking female characters are sexualized.

Profit has been the main driver of the erotica market, as adult magazines have provided a steady revenue stream for many stores. Yet, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Japan’s major convenience-store chains — 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart — announced they would stop selling adult magazines nationwide. The decision, framed as an effort to make stores “more comfortable for women and children” and to “avoid damaging Japan’s image among inbound tourists,” marked a significant symbolic shift.

Online, the move sparked mixed reactions. Supporters welcomed it as long-overdue progress toward gender sensitivity in public spaces. Critics, however, saw it as performative, arguing that Japan acted only when foreign scrutiny loomed. One user, @asitafukukazen, wrote on X in reaction to the change in 2019:

今まで散々女性が苦言を呈しても動かなかったのに、客が来れば国主導でホイホイ動く。女性軽視の社会なのは歴然。

Women have been complaining for years, but nothing changed until the Olympics. That shows how little this country values women’s voices.

While sexual images are becoming less visible in major convenience stores, they are still essential features in Japanese popular culture and public spaces. In recent years, concerns have also been raised about sexually suggestive advertisements appearing on non-adult websites, as well as children’s exposure to sexualized content in games, manga, and other subcultural media.

Yet, calls for more restrictions, such as zoning and age control in accessing sexual content both online and offline, have often resulted in backlash as critics argued that such interventions will amount to censorship. 

Sex remains a taboo in school and society

The debate about freedom of expression and freedom from objectification surrounding the public display of erotic and sexual images has been carried on for years without reaching a consensus.

Yet, even as sexualization remains commonplace, educational discussions around sexuality and consent are lacking in Japan’s education system. Currently, Japanese classrooms still regard sex as an issue of biological reproduction. Sex education classes are often separated by gender — girls learn about menstruation while boys attend general health or sports classes. There are minimal discussions about sexuality, such as sexual consent, safe sex, healthy relationships, and sexual orientations.

The gender-specific curriculum reinforces the idea that sexual knowledge was something gendered, private, shameful, or even unnecessary. As explained by a blogger, Musashi, on Medium:

Japanese sexual education tends to reinforce old norms and stereotypes regarding gender roles. […] The narrative often emphasizes the differences between genders and underscores that men and women are to fulfill distinct roles.

As a result, even today, some Japanese still regard menstruation as a private embarrassment rather than a public health issue, as raised by female lawmaker Ayaka Yoshida.

On September 1st, 2025, a nationwide petition titled “Abolish the Ministry of Education’s Restrictive Guidelines on Sex Education: For Realistic and Inclusive Sex Education in Japan” was launched on Change.org, calling for the removal of restrictive Ministry of Education guidelines or the so-called “Hadome Clause” (はどめ規定), which suggests classroom discussion of sexuality need not cover the “process leading to fertilization” and “the course of pregnancy.” The authority argues that the guidelines give schools discretion to determine the depth of their sex education courses. 

The campaign organizers, however, demand replacing the guidelines with a clear stance that all children must have access to accurate, comprehensive sexual education. More than 41,500 people have signed the petition thus far.

Indeed, a society where sexual images have become part of daily life demands a more comprehensive sex education to mitigate against gender and sexual stereotypes. As studies in media psychology suggest, repeated exposure to sexually objectifying content can shape viewers’ ideas of gender roles and relationships. 

In Japan, casual sexual jokes, appearance-based comments, and assumptions about women’s behavior are often seen in workplaces and schools. Among adolescents, frequent encounters with eroticized content in public spaces can dull sensitivity toward what constitutes respectful or inappropriate behavior, reinforcing stereotypes and even normalized sexual harassment and body shaming from an early age.

Such harms are frequently seen. For example, one 14-year-old complained in a teenage online forum that boys often commented on her chest, asking, “Aren’t you embarrassed by how big your breasts are?” and that even teachers seemed to look at her chest before her face. Her posts received many echoes from her peers, but also several sex jokes from boys.

In such an environment, women are more likely to self-objectify, seeing sexual attractiveness as a primary measure of their worth.

Japan’s challenge is to reconcile the desire to preserve creative and erotic expression with the need to ensure that public spaces respect the differences among humankind. The first step can start with the introduction of a more open-minded, comprehensive, and diverse sex education curriculum.