Photo/Illutration A student in Tokyo plays a game on his smartphone while using his tablet device to watch an online video game played by others. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The physical strength of fifth-grade boys fell to a record low this fiscal year partly because they are spending more time watching TV, playing video games and using smartphones, a survey showed.

The Japan Sports Agency conducted the survey from April to July on about 2.01 million children, accounting for most of the fifth-grade elementary school pupils and second-year junior high school students in the country.

According to the results released on Dec. 23, fifth-grade girls have also gotten weaker.

The agency started the nationwide survey in fiscal 2008. It measures overall strength through eight athletic activities: gripping power; sit-ups; seated forward bends; repeated side stepping; 50-meter dash; standing broad jump; softball throws (handball for junior high school children); and 20-meter shuttle run (or long-distance run for junior high school children).

Until last fiscal year, the overall scores for fifth-grade and second-year junior high school girls had risen for five straight years, while those for boys remained almost unchanged.

However, the scores for both girls and boys declined this fiscal year.

The score for fifth-grade boys dropped from 54.2 points last fiscal year to 53.6 points, below the previous record low of 53.8 points marked in fiscal 2015.

The survey also found that increases in “screen time,” the number of hours spent looking at screens of TVs, video games and smartphones, led to a decrease in exercise time, thereby reducing physical strength.

According to the survey, 15.4 percent of fifth-grade boys said they spend five hours or more daily for screen time on weekdays, the second straight year of increase. The ratio was higher than the 9.2 percent of fifth-grade girls with the same amount of screen time.