It’s the beginning of the week, so japanCRUSH brings you a touch of kawaii [cuteness] to brighten up your Monday.
One of the most popular articles over the weekend was based on a recent survey that asked Japanese netizens about their first kiss. The survey explored the age at which most people experienced their first kiss, as well as looking into what the changing statistics might tell us about Japanese society.
The article about the recent survey is translated below along with the results, as well as comments about netizens’ own experiences of love.
Survey: At What Age Did You Have Your First Kiss?
One of our most bittersweet memories of love is our first kiss. Of course, this varies depending on age and situation; but we wanted to ask our readers about the first kiss that they remember.
When did you have your first kiss? Here are the results of the survey:
1. In high school: 9,878 votes
2. Never been kissed: 6,119 votes
3. In middle school: 6,021 votes
4. As a company worker up to 30 years old: 5,771 votes
5. As a university student: 4,246 votes
6. In kindergarten: 2,423 votes
7. In elementary school: 2,029 votes
8. After thirty-one years of age: 331 votes
Most replies stated that their first kiss was as a ‘high-schooler’. Adding together number three, ‘middle-schooler,’ number five, ‘university student’, number six, ‘in kindergarden/nursery’ and number seven, ‘in elementary school student’, this means that more than sixty percent of people had experienced their first kiss by their early twenties.
And as for the flavour of that kiss, in a 2009 survey carried out by Oricon, it was revealed that most people replied ‘strawberries’, which was just above ‘lemon’. According to the same survey, when these results were divided according to generation, among people who were middle/high schoolers, vocational school or university students, and company workers in their early twenties, strawberry was the number one flavour that reminded them of their first kiss (in the group of company workers in their early twenties, this tied with lemon). For those in their thirties and forties, the number one result was lemon. So there are even differences in the flavour of a kiss depending on your generation.
Do first kisses taste of strawberries?
On the other hand, number two in our survey was ‘I still haven’t been kissed.’ Since rank number four is occupied by ‘as a company worker up to thirty years old’, we can see that there are also a considerable number of people who are cautious with their first kiss. According to the ‘National Survey of Sexual Behaviour of Youths’ which has been carried out by the Japanese Association for Sex Education since 1974 and focuses on youth and young people, although the level of adolescents experiencing their first kiss rose between 1993 and 2005, in 2011 there was a reversal, with results showing that this number is actually falling. It is assumed that this fall in the number of adolescents experiencing their first kiss is linked to a rise in the number of so-called ‘herbivore men’ in the survey, those men who are not proactive with regards to sex and love.
This survey was carried out using votes cast through ‘Everyone’s Voice’ by NTT Docomo. 36,818 votes were cast between 6 and 19 September. Please note that the results of this survey are not based on scientific statistics.
Comments from Ameba News:
三本毛ヒヨコ:
I can’t believe there are people who’ve never been kissed…www Sorry for getting carried away with the French kissing! (笑)
廣瀬さん家の翔真君:
This doesn’t include men, does it? Yup, OK.
★さっち
It was when I was a first-year in high-school. I don’t reckon I could tell you what flavour it was…If I had to liken it to something, I guess I’d say plastic? (笑)
ちむ(m’□’m):
Isn’t it like so romantic if you have your first kiss at your wedding?
ゆぅき$受験生の為放置気味$:
I don’t even want to kiss, just thinking about it makes me want to puke… (笑) Well, I haven’t got anyone to do it with anyway (;O;)
ザ・白鳥美麗:
I was twenty-three…
俊二:
I can’t tell you the details, but I’ve totally done it ←
りとるみい☆彡:
My first kiss was on a street near the station. There was no flavour. I guess if I had to say something, I remember the flavour of the lips that kissed me back then. I mean, a strawberry flavour kiss? Are you serious?
そらにん:
I’m a high-school student but I have no plans to kiss anyone www!
丸亀製粉＠出戻り:
This isn’t because of an increase in the number of herbivore men, it’s just because the era in which being a drinking, smoking, playboy gave you some status is completely over. Nowadays, growing up too soon is a bad thing. In a time of caution and reliability, being ‘flashy’ is out of fashion.
ゆっくりとね♪:
These kinds of statistics are for the benefit of doctors and social research aren’t they? Although they are useful in education about the prevention of communicable diseases, they’re not something that should be treated as ‘common’ and ‘general’ in order to generate interest..
＠ねこ缶:
22の時だったかな？飲み会の帰りだったから、多分焼酎味だ(笑)キスは免疫効果を高
I guess it was when I was 22? We were on the way home from a drinking session, and it was probably a booze-flavoured kiss (笑)! I hear that kissing improves your immune system…
大量絆創膏:
They even surveyed the flavour of the kiss www
ちほ＠ 8EST 12月1日２部☆初参戦☆∞:
They’ve written that the flavour is strawberry, but it didn’t taste of anything (^_^;) I wonder if that’s because I was too nervous?
蒼穹の謳い手,:
My first kiss was when I was zero!!! With my mummy!!!
りきじ:
There’s this rumour that I did something like that when I was in kindergarten.
03:
My first kiss was in the fourth or fifth year of elementary school…My lips were stolen in the water of the swimming pool during phys ed. www And what’s more, my partner was of the same sex wwwww[This is meant to be a joke; they probably bumped into each other while swimming]
ぽいぽい:
I was 14. The whole world changed in an instant.
*哀歌*桜桃(sakuranbo)*:
My first kiss was this year
希夜:
Mine had a strong smell of cigarettes…uh-oh.
ゆーきω=):
Ha ha ha…had my first kiss been when I was a high-school student, there were only guys around, so even though I haven’t kissed anyone yet, I’m not really embarrassed about it!
