2.5% of Japanese 11 Year Olds Often Play Eroge?

According to a study conducted by the Japanese National PTA Congress, 2.5% of Japanese fifth grade elementary school pupils “often play” adult games, and only 5% are without a console or handheld, Mainichi reports.

The real intent of this study appears to be to gauge game playing habits amongst children – other findings are that the most played genres were action games and RPGs with about 30% each ranking as “often played”. Only 4.8% of fifth graders did not possess a gaming device. Just over 50% of 13 year olds said they used (mobile phone) mail late at night, and 16% claimed they used mail more than 50 times a day. Uneventful findings.

The study appears to have been conducted with a statistically valid sample size of some 9600 children, of whom responses were obtained from 75%.

Much as I hate to spoil a good headline with a qualification, there is some ambiguity in the wording, as the original says “性的表現があるアダルトゲーム”, adult games featuring sexual expressions/representations – the word “hyougen” might mean either, and might just be taken to mean games including reference to sex, although “adult game” and “representation” might have a stronger meaning, as you can imagine.

The English version has it as “adult video games containing sexual content”, but this hardly clarifies matters. Still, knowing what goes into the likes of certain games not considered “adult” in Japan, I have no trouble thinking that this substantially refers to eroge.

Whilst many adults will recoil that this is “too early”, I am sure if they cast their minds back to when they were 11, many will be able to remember becoming extraordinarily healthy at around this age – I can certainly recall such. Besides which, the visual novel deserves to be considered as integral a part of Japanese visual culture as manga or games – if such children are enjoying the likes of To Love-Ru, why not enjoy games too? Via Ore-teki.