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Your first kiss is sure to be a memorable event. It might even be the most memorable event in your life for decades if all goes well…or if it turns into a proper disaster. At least, that’s what we learned from teenage comedies. But even though it’s such a big event in any young person’s life, everyone’s first kiss seems to come at different ages.
We’ve discussed kissing in Japan before, but a new survey reveals the average first-kiss age of Japanese folks broken down by prefecture, showing which prefecture’s women were the fastest and kissiest in the country! Who do you think came in first place? And who’s bringing up the rear as the “slowest to their first kiss?”
The survey, conducted by LC Love Cosmetic, asked 2,350 women across Japan how old they were when they had their first kiss. Of course, these are the average ages for each prefecture – we’re sure that a few oddballs are skewing some of the results. After all, some of us had our first kiss on the playground in elementary school when we “got married,” and some of us were still wondering what that first kiss would be like well after we’d started drinking…legally. But, in Japan, at least to this survey, the average age for a woman’s first kiss was somewhere in the range of 16-19.
So which prefecture had the earliest average age for their first kiss? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tokyo took first place in the race to the smooch, with an average age of 16.3 years old. Second place went to Akita Prefecture, with an average age of 16.6, where we can only assume that kissing is how everyone stays warm through the chilly northern winters. Finally, Nagasaki Prefecture was in third place with an average age of 16.7.
However, LC Love Cosmetic notes that part of the reason for these three prefectures having such young ages for women’s first kisses was that many of their kissing partners weren’t lovers but rather friends or cousins. Apparently, these women were so curious about smooching that they started experimenting with whomever was available. Perhaps as a result of this, many of the women surveyed from Tokyo, Akita, and Nagasaki didn’t have particularly strong impressions of the event.
At the other end of the spectrum were Aichi and Nara prefectures, whose average ages were both 19.1. LC Love Cosmetic suggested that Aichi Prefecture’s results may reflect its people’s strong conservative nature. As for Nara Prefecture, they believed the study showed how strong Nara residents’ individuality was, implying that rather than racing to their first kiss, the people of Nara tend to take things at their own pace.
In third place was Ishikawa Prefecture where the average age for women’s first kisses was 18.7 years old. Here again, LC Love Cosmetic suggested that this may be a result of the conservative values of the prefecture’s people.
For an overview of the results by prefecture, below is a handy color-coded map produced by LC Love Cosmetic. Green is for prefectures where the women’s first kiss was while they were 16, orange for 17, pink for 18, and purple is for 19.
The national average, according to this survey at least, puts the average age for first kisses at 17.7 years old. Just in time for high school graduation. In addition to finding out about Japanese women’s early romantic adventures, LC Love Cosmetic has looked at other areas of Japan’s feminine side, including studying the country’s average bust size by prefecture. We couldn’t find any correlation between how big women’s breasts were and their ages at their first kiss, but maybe we’re not looking hard enough.
And if you’re wondering why LC Love Cosmetic is so interested in Japanese women’s kissing habits, we can only guess that it has something to do with market research for their “kiss beautifying liquid.” Because nothing would enhance a first kiss like corn soup.
Sources: LC Love Cosmetic, Excite Japan
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- The State of the Kiss in Modern Japan -- Kiss and Tell: Japanese lipstick company conducts survey on first kisses -- When do Japanese People Have Their First Kiss? When Did You Have Yours?
© RocketNews24
25 Comments
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SimondB
I think it is fair to say that by the age of 16.3 I and most of my contemporaries had gone a fair bit further than a first kiss.
FightingViking
@SimondB
Maybe you could count me in...Well actually, I was just 17 but that couldn't be helped because I was in an "all-girls" boarding school and I'm frankly NOT interested in my own gender...
TrevorPeace1
I go with the primary grade-school playground "we're married" experience. Of course, if I admitted to not having experienced the same thing in the past twenty years, you'd all call me a monk.
SenseNotSoCommon
or at least said they had?
NathalieB
I find the first kiss very hard to define. Was it the time we were playing kiss-chase at age 8? Or exchanging "Christmas kisses" in the schoolyard at 12? Spin the bottle at 15? Or would it have been the first proper boyfriend at 16?
The first slow-dance however - very simple to remember. His name was Christopher, it was 1984 and I was 11. It was George Michael, Careless Whispers. He is still a great mate of mine to this day thanks to facebook. Still really cute too! Ah....where do the years go...?
Laguna
Me at 15, track teammate Melisa, her bedroom - still remember clearly the bewitching squishiness. I was the first of my friends so had to do some heavy accounting afterwards.
clueless
Kissing?.....pfft. In Scotland it ain't no surprise if you've had a kid by 14 or 15 :)
SimondB
SenseNotSoCommonMay. 09, 2014 - 11:50AM JST
or at least said they had?
Yes Sense, there was an element of that but it needs to be balanced against the girls we knew on Thornhill Estate. Peer pressure meant you would be mocked if you hadn't "done it" by 16. Thus the large number of teenage girls pushing prams around the estate.
Michal Ostrihoň
I would say never, but I am only 31, still a lot of time for that. I guess, that I am trying to live like Japanese too much.
Thunderbird2
In my late teens - can't remember exactly.
Clueless... I hope you're Scots, if not, nice slur on a nation.
Novenachama
The image of a kiss is powerful that it can unite the souls of two lovers and represents one of the most delightful and common conceits employed by poets and playwrights across literary history. Kissing represents an important developmental milestone not only in the life of a relationship but also in the life of an individual. It is an important rite of passage and a developmentally appropriate sexual event that most of us experience. Clearly kissing is important but to couples as their relationship progresses and to individuals as they move from adolescence into adulthood. Surprisingly most men and women approached their first kiss with anxiety, dread and other negative emotions. In the end the first kiss is a memorable experience that occurs only once in a person's lifetime and is special because it will be something you will remember the rest of your life.
Cortes Elijah
My mom. When I was kissed goodnight.
goodchoice
16 is not young for that experience. Globally and historically, its bloody ancient.
ThonTaddeo
I wonder what the figures are like for boys. I suspect that there will be much more variety, with the aggressive jock types getting started quite young indeed while the otaku crowd is stuck waiting until their late 20s; possible forever.
Come to think of it, the survey seems to presuppose that everyone has enjoyed a kiss at least once. I wonder what precentage of each sex has never had the experience.
rranta
what, for us boys?? are you serious? us boys were properly scared to death of kissing girls till the late teens or older. Remember when you just knew you would be teased if you even talked about "liking" a girl? I think for me, I was in the early 20's. I'm what is refered to as a late bloomer. I think that's about the right age when girls lose their cooties.
Lowly
1st kiss, nice memory… :)
Back of my friend's car, I think he was driving at the time and the car was full of my all my friends, too, and this girl (who'd had a crush on me for literally a year and I was not interested in at all but had become good friends with over the yr), and I just sort of ended up melting in to each other and kissing and kissing and kissing, and then we were in love and she was my girlfriend for high school. Wow, what a great kid she was. Glad I met her and glad she won my heart over.
Kittychosen
This article needs clarification. Are we talking a brief touch of puckered lips - or tongues? Poles apart.
Thunderbird2: Generally, north of the Watford Gap, kissing is by-passed and it's up the back alley once age reaches double figures. Guaranteed own apartment, flat screen TV & assured income for the next 18 years...
So, Lowly - what happened to her??
Yubaru
NathalieB....Wow, a Japanese girl's first kiss is with...heaven forbid.... a gwaijin. Lucky you!
Thunderbird2
@kittychosen I'm Scottish and that stereotype is typical of southern tories.
Aaron Loki Brummett
My first kiss was by a Japanese girl in the third grade. Its sort of a shameful story... I was a mean kid and one day I tried to trip her and failed... she then gave me my first black eye... but she felt bad for me because I was crying so she kissed me. I recall that I told my parents that she put a brick in her bookbag and that she hit me with that while teamed up with two of her friends.. LOL!
Kittychosen
Thunderbird2:
Good point, perhaps I should have said 'north of Lizard Point"!
Don't think political persuasion is foremost on their minds though.
Tessa
Never encountered a J-male who was actually any good at kissing. They need more practice.
James Dean Jnr.
19 for me...
Lowly
Kittychosen, don't know if ur still reading this, but she went on to be come a researcher, has a husband, two beautiful kids, and has been lauded by Natnl Geo. I knew she was special. (But I was no where near commitment-mind at that age).