Dating is forbidden at all of the junior high schools, and most parents and teachers believe that few junior high school students date. Parents, teachers, and students alike agree that dating does not play a part in the lives of the vast majority of junior high students. By definition, junior high students who are dating are considered junior high students with problems. If junior high school students were to be asked about dates, the students' reaction would probably be silence or nervous giggles. Most junior high school teachers believe that only a few junior high school age students go on dates.

During the junior high school years, students generally demonstrate an interest in the opposite sex, but have little unsupervised time to meet with potential boy or girl friends. The general disapproval of dating at this age also makes it hard for couples to get together. So, early adolescents express their affection in various ways. At the junior high school level students meet in groups to chat after school, or go to each other's house for studying. The public libraries in Japanese cities are an excellent place to observe this type of interaction. Both junior high and high school students go to the libraries in great numbers on Saturday afternoons. Large tables are filled with mixed groups of girls and boys. While ostensibly studying, the talk may turn to the latest television show or music group.

Public displays of affection among junior high school students are very rare in Japan.The dating behaviors that students and teachers describe tend to support the notion that while Japanese students may have easy access to magazines and comics with explicitly sexual material (mangas), not many students are sexually active in junior high school or high school. The students surveyed at Naka Vocational listed sleep first and sex third as the things they most wanted. Getting accurate data on students' sex lives is difficult in any country, and it is especially difficult in Japan, given the fact that junior high schools and many high schools forbid dating. 

In a study conducted by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, teachers at Arata and Meiji Schools thought that some students were having sex, but they believed this to be a small  percentage. A survey of Japanese high school students in 1987 found that 11.5 percent of males and 8.7 percent of females reported having been sexually active, about the same percentage found in a similar survey conducted in 1974 (Shimazaki, 1993. At this age, students who had part-time jobs appeared to have more adult attitudes toward dating and sex.

It is likely that students who are on the academic track to college are more circumspect in their dating and sexual behavior. Students who are sexually active and in school advancement tracks must risk a good deal. An untimely pregnancy could dash the future hopes of both the male and female. 

As a teacher stated:

source: The Educational System in Japan: Case Study Findings June 1998- 4 - The Role of School in Japanese Adolescents' Lives (Part 4 of 6)]

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