Photo/Illutration Plan Youth Group member Misaki Tsuda in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward on April 10 (Amane Shimazaki)

Up to 67.6 percent of high school students do not know what “sexual consent” means or have heard the term but cannot explain it, a survey showed April 14.

Plan Youth Group, an organization of people between the ages of 15 and 24 that operates under public interest incorporated foundation Plan International Japan, conducted the survey in December 2024 on 1,000 high school students in Japan.

Plan Youth aims for gender equality and other goals by suggesting policies to the government and spreading messages to young generations.

According to the survey, 63.9 percent of respondents said they have been taught about sexual consent at school, but 58.6 percent of them said they “cannot explain” the term or “don’t really understand it.”

Plan Youth called on the government and other organizations to provide comprehensive sex education, including sexual consent and human rights, at schools across the country.

“We need to prevent people from becoming victims, perpetrators or bystanders of sexual violence by promoting a correct understanding of sexual consent,” said Misaki Tsuda, a 24-year-old graduate school student who is a member of Plan Youth.

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