The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of norm-consciousness and resilience on the prevention of youth risk behaviors among Japanese high school students. Data of a national survey, Japan Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2011, was used for this analysis. The subjects were 9778 students (5027 males, 4751 females) in grades 10 -12 in 102 schools randomly selected from among high schools throughout Japan. When multiple regression analysis was carried out using four subdomains of norm-consciousness and three subdomains of resilience as the independent variables and nine risk behaviors as the dependent variables, the subdomains of norm-consciousness showed significant positive standardized partial regression coefficients for eight risk behaviors for both males and females. In particular, "current alcohol use" and "ever had sexual intercourse" showed the largest standardized partial regression coefficients for the norm-consciousness in school, and "current cigarette use" showed that for the norm-consciousness in community. The subdomains of resilience showed significant positive standardized partial regression coefficients for five risk behaviors for males and for six those for females. The results of this study suggest that the norm-consciousness is an important protective factor to comprehensively prevent risk behaviors among Japanese adolescents. It is expected to be effective to enhance the norm-consciousness particularly in school and community. In addition, resilience should also be emphasized as a factor to prevent specific risk behaviors.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between the consumption of non-alcoholic beverages (such as non-alcoholic beer, non-alcoholic cocktails, and non-alcoholic wine) and alcohol drinking behavior among Japanese youths. Data from the Japan Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2011 were analyzed. The study subjects were 9775 high school students (5026 males and 4749 females) randomly selected from the 10th to the 12th grade in 102 high schools throughout Japan. The results indicated that the percentage of youths who had consumed non-alcoholic beverages was 25.8% among males (11.5%: "one time"; 14.3%: "two or more times") and 26.1% among females (12.2%: "one time"; 13.9%: "two or more times"), which suggested that at least one in four Japanese high school students had consumed non-alcoholic beverages. Those students that had consumed non-alcoholic beverages were at a significantly higher risk for alcohol-related behaviors, including "ever drank alcohol", "current alcohol use", "current frequent alcohol use", and "chugging", when compared with students who had never consumed non-alcoholic beverages. The risk for alcohol-related behaviors was higher for students who had consumed non-alcoholic beverages two or more times than for those who had consumed them one time. Specifically, the odds ratio for "ever drank alcohol" in the "one time" group was 5.16 (95% CI: 4.22-6.30) for males and 4.27 (95% CI: 3.53-5.16) for females, while it was markedly high for those in the "two or more times" group, with males at 9.78 (95% CI: 7.88-12.14) and females at 7.59 (95% CI: 6.20-9.29). M. Kubo et al. 32 The results of this study suggest that it is necessary to continuously ascertain the prevalence of non-alcoholic beverage consumption among Japanese youths. In addition, alcohol drinking prevention in youths requires attention be paid not only to their consumption of alcoholic beverages, but also to their consumption of non-alcoholic beverages.

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively analyze and examine the experiences of sexuality education by health and physical education teachers and to obtain findings for improving and enriching the sexuality education programs. In our survey, semistructured interviews were conducted between February and June 2020 targeting five health and physical education teachers working at junior high school and high school.The obtained data were analyzed by the qualitative descriptive method. As a result, we found that the specialized teachers selected as the subjects in this study "Help students understand the contents of sexuality education", "Comprehensively cover topics on sexuality", "Offer individual support to students who need extra assistance", "Cooperate closely with colleagues and guardians", and "Understand diversity in sexuality". It was suggested that in order to improve and enrich the programs of future sexuality education, teachers are further required to (1) Devise teaching materials and methods used in classes from the perspective of encouraging students to think, (2) Comprehensively cover topics on sexuality related to modern issues while taking human rights into account, and (3) Cultivate diversity regarding sexuality. It was also suggested that teachers should continuously try to grasp the learning situation of each student while offering thoughtful support as they consult and share information with colleagues and guardians in the practice of sexuality education.

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain Japanese generalist elementary teachers’ experiences teaching physical education (PE) to Japanese language learner (JLL) children in public schools in Japan. Participants were seven public elementary school teachers (two females and five males) who had experience teaching JLL children. Data sources included a demographic questionnaire, online semi-structured interviews, and follow-up email interviews. Framed in positioning theory, three themes were identified from the data analysis: (a) seeking PE lesson ideas from observing children's performance in other academic subjects, (b) learning how to interact with parents of JLL children, and (c) accommodating JLL children's cultural and behavioral differences in PE. The findings indicate that all seven Japanese public elementary teachers experienced a wide range of physical, emotional, and social struggles when they taught JLL children in PE class. This study suggested that PE has the potential to enrich teachers’ and children's cultural awareness and mutual understanding and as a tool to raise awareness of social justice and diversity.