UNINTENDED PREGNANCIES AMONG TEENS ON THE RISE IN JAPAN

An apparent surge in unintended pregnancies since April as the coronavirus pandemic forces people to spend more time at home has prompted the health ministry to launch a nationwide study in order to come up with more effective policies to support women, Mainichi Shimbun reported.

A research team from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will look into reasons women have given for having abortions this year and hopes to produce a detailed analysis by the end of fiscal 2020 next March based on region and age group, Kyodo news agency also reported.

Support groups for such women suggest that the rise in unexpected pregnancies is particularly marked among teenage girls and women in their 20s. They also say, as does government data, that sexual abuse is on the increase as an indirect consequence of the pandemic.

According to the nonprofit group Mikkumie in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, the spring closure of schools during the initial wave of the pandemic appears to have pushed up teen pregnancies.

"I had sex with my boyfriend every day during school closures. Now I'm worried about being pregnant," one caller told the group, according to the NPO's representative, Noriko Matsuoka.

She said there were roughly 70 consultation calls in the six months from April to September, including the period of the nationwide state of emergency from early April to late May -- approaching the approximately 100 calls it received in the whole of 2019.

"There has been an obvious rise in these kinds of consultations, which appears to be a consequence of COVID-19," Matsuoka said.

Nearly half of the calls were from teens, many of them young girls. With no school or club activities to attend, some of them had used social media to start "meeting up with people they don't know," Matsuoka said.

Hatsumi Sato, director of SOS Shinjuku-Kids & Family, a nonprofit group based in Tokyo that supports mothers and pregnant women in their teens and 20s, said there are growing concerns that more young women are becoming the victims of sexual violence as a result of staying home during the pandemic.

"Cases stand out of sexual assault from family members, such as brothers or stepfathers, while these girls were at home during school closures," said Sato. "Many that come for consultations do so as a last resort since they feel they cannot speak with their mothers or the police."

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