What age do Japanese women have their first kiss?

A survey set out to discover at what age Japanese women have their first kiss.

The results, taken from 2,350 women polled online, show disparity between different ages and prefectures.

The oldest average ages were in Nara and Aichi, where women were 19.1 years old when they had their debut smooches. This was closely followed by Ishikawa with 18.7 years old. Aichi is the strange one here, since it is the prefecture with Nagoya, Japan’s fourth largest city (after Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kyoto).

The youngest age for women to start kissing was in Tokyo, where women experienced their first kisses at 16.3 years old. We were actually expecting Okinawa to win out, given its pleasant climate and laid-back lifestyle. It seems that the metropolitan life trumps that, though, and people are keen to get on in life and achieve those notches.

In all, the average age in the majority of prefectures was under 18 years old, so, even if youngsters are not having sex, they are at least kissing (presumably each other). Saying that, the ages are probably quite a bit older than the equivalent in the United States or many European countries.

Here are the results in full.

1. Tokyo (16.3 years)
2. Akita (16.6 years)
3. Nagasaki (16.7 years)
4 (tie). Kumamoto (16.8 years)
4 (tie). Tottori (16.8 years)
6 (tie). Gunma (17 years)
6 (tie). Hokkaido (17 years)
8 (tie). Fukui (17.1 years)
8 (tie). Tokushima (17.1 years)
10 (tie). Gifu (17.2 years)
10 (tie). Wakayama (17.2 years)
10 (tie). Kagawa (17.2 years)
13 (tie). Saitama (17.3 years)
13 (tie). Kyoto (17.3 years)
13 (tie). Okinawa (17.3 years)
16. Shimane (17.4 years)
17 (tie). Niigata (17.5 years)
17 (tie). Kochi (17.5 years)
17 (tie). Shiga (17.5 years)
20 (tie). Tochigi (17.6 years)
20 (tie). Fukuka (17.6 years)
20 (tie). Oita (17.6 years)
23 (tie). Kanagawa (17.7 years)
23 (tie). Mie (17.7 years)
23 (tie). Yamaguchi (17.7 years)
26 (tie). Okayama (17.8 years)
26 (tie). Ehime (17.8 years)
28. Osaka (17.9 years)
29. Hyogo (18 years)
30 (tie). Miyazaki (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Kagoshima (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Saga (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Shizuoka (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Yamagata (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Aomori (18.1 years)
30 (tie). Iwate (18.1 years)
37. Yamagata (18.2 years)
38. Chiba (18.3 years)
39 (tie). Hiroshima (18.4 years)
39 (tie). Miyagi (18.4 years)
39 (tie). Nagano (18.4 years)
42 (tie). Toyama (18.5 years)
42 (tie). Fukushima (18.5 years)
44. Ibaraki (18.6 years)
45. Ishikawa (18.7 years)
46 (tie). Nara (19.1 years)
46 (tie). Aichi (19.1 years)

The first caveat to note about this survey is that this data is old — the poll was done in 2014.

Secondly, the number of respondents is hardly representative of the country, let alone on a per-prefecture basis. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting indicator of some trends. We like the fact that Akita, a cold and remote rural prefecture, still manages to come in second after Tokyo!

We also once blogged about a survey that revealed the prefecture where women are most likely to have one-night stands, and another survey that claimed 14% of Japanese women expect sex on the first date.