According to a survey conducted by NHK's Broadcasting Culture Research Institute targeting junior high and high school students, 40% of high school students answered that they have friends they have never met in real life, while 10 We found that there was an increase from last year.



The survey has been conducted about once every 10 years since 1982, and this year we asked about the use of SNS, school rules, and understanding of sexual minorities.



We'll take a closer look.

The survey has been conducted by NHK's Broadcasting Culture Research Institute since 1982 to investigate the lives and attitudes of junior and senior high school students, and this is the sixth such survey.



This year, from July to August, 1800 people, including junior high school students and high school students, and people of the same age nationwide, responded, and 1183 people, 66%, responded.



In past surveys, interviews were conducted with individuals, but this time, based on the infection status of the new corona, it was conducted by mail.



For this reason, we avoid simple comparisons with past results.



Let's take a quick look at the results.

Over 90% use SNS

When asked about their use of the Internet, more than 90% of junior high school and high school students answered that they "use SNS" and "watch videos," while more than 50% answered that they "play online games." Shopping” was 10% of junior high school students and 33% of high school students.



In the previous survey, 8% of junior high school students and 36% of high school students used social media, indicating that the use of SNS has spread and become commonplace over the past 10 years.

26% of junior high school students and 42% of high school students have friends they have never met

In addition, 26% of junior high school students and 42% of high school students answered that they have friends who have only met through SNS and have never actually met.



In a survey conducted 10 years ago, 17% of junior high school students and 32% of high school students answered “yes” to a similar question, suggesting an upward trend.

On the other hand, when asked about the average real-time TV viewing time on weekdays, most junior and senior high school students answered that they "seldom watch", with 25% of junior high school students and 38% of high school students, nearly 40%.

The school rule that I want to be free is "hairstyle"

When asked whether school rules were stricter or more liberal, 45% of junior high school students and 51% of high school students answered that they were stricter, showing a downward trend compared to the previous survey.

Among these, when students were asked to select from 4 items that they would like students to freely leave to them without being forced by school rules, "hairstyle" was the most common, 62% of all junior high and high school students, and "clothing". However, more than 40% of all junior and senior high school students answered that they participated in club activities, and more than 20% of all junior and senior high school students answered that they would participate in club activities.

“I don’t want to become an adult too soon” over half

The age of adulthood was lowered to 18 in April this year, but when asked if they wanted to become adults as soon as possible, 63% of junior high school students and 58 high school students answered that they did not. %, and more than half of the respondents said that it was easier to be a child, and that they were somewhat uneasy.

understanding of sexual minorities

On the other hand, this time, for the first time, we set up a question about sexual minorities, and when asked if they would understand if a close friend told them that their ``physical gender'' and ``mental gender'' did not match, 69 middle school students responded. 80% of high school students answered that they could understand.



Junnosuke Nakayama, a researcher at the Public Opinion Research Department of the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, said, ``The spread of smartphones and the rapid development of SNS services in the last 10 years are behind the increase in usage. The “social native generation” is also building new forms of friendship through the Internet.Other surveys also show that the younger generations tend to understand sexual minorities.Education at school and online The fact that there are many opportunities to come into contact with various information may also have an impact."

NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute Public Opinion Survey Results