'If you say to them that they have to use condoms, some of them might use them. It is like drinking alcohol or smoking': an educational intervention with Japanese senior high school students

A four-session educational intervention at the Japanese senior high school level was conducted with 40 15–16-year-old male and female students. The purpose of the intervention was to break the silence pervading sex education at school and to help students question their understanding of sex, risk, contraception and love. Observations, questionnaires from the participants, and tape-recordings of each session were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Sexual slang and euphemisms appear to be a relevant tool to enhance the communication between the teacher and students. Discussions about condom use demystified assumptions of young people as disembodied and desexualised beings. For most of the informants the negotiation of condom use was not a rational issue of individuals engaged in cost–benefit analysis.