[Japanese national survey of adolescent drinking behavior: comparison between 1996 and 2000 surveys]

This report shows Japanese adolescent drinking behavior from the national surveys conducted in 1996 and 2000. We randomly selected 120 junior high schools and 100 senior high schools nationwide. We requested the cooperation of the principals of these schools and sent questionnaires to each school. Students answered anonymously the questionnaires during school time, and sealed in envelopes by themselves; then teachers collected the envelopes. The questionnaire focused on adolescent drinking behavior. Valid responses numbered 42,798 (1996) and 47,246 (2000) from the junior high schools and 73,016 (1996) and 59,051 (2000) from the senior high schools. The number of students surveyed represented about 1% of all Japanese junior high school students, and about 2% of all senior high school students. This report covers only students who gave answers on both drinking frequency and drinking quantity. It compares adolescent drinking behavior between the 1996 and 2000 surveys, such as drinking frequency, drinking quantities, drinking occasions, methods of obtaining alcohol, kinds of alcohol drunk, alcohol-related problems, opinions on the law that prohibits minors under 20 years of age from drinking alcohol, and distribution of drinking status of the subjects by the Quantity-Frequency Scale (QF scale). In a comparison of adolescent drinking behavior between the 1996 survey and 2000 survey, non-drinkers among junior high school students increased from 45% to 55%, and those among senior high school students increased from 27% to 33%. On the other hand, ratios of female students in both junior and senior high schools who drank 1 or more times per week were higher in the 2000 survey than in the 1996 survey. Comparison of the 1996 survey and 2000 survey did not indicate that Japanese adolescent drinking has increased or decreased.