Current surveys indicate that more than 70% of married couples in Japan use condoms as their primary contraceptive method. The popularity of condoms is due to the oral contraceptive (OC) pills not being recognized as safe forms of contraception and IUDs not being legalized by the government until 1974. The history of condom use in Japan goes back to 1872 when condoms of thin leather were imported into Japan from England and France. Manufacturing of condoms in Japan began in 1909, mainly as a method for venereal disease prevention. The condom and induced abortion are now the major methods of contraception. 60% of the distribution of condoms is through pharmacies and cosmetic stores; 50% of the buyers are women. Since 1955, teams of family planning workers have distributed condoms by selling on a door-to-door basis, especially to lower middle class couples. Between 1969-75, 75% of contraceptive users were using condoms. Currently there are 81% users. The rhythm method ranks second in popularity at 30% between 1969-75. OCs have gradually increased recently to 3% users, but side effects have deterred people from selecting them. The proportion of IUD users has remained at a consistently low level for the past several years. Japan accounts for 1/3 of the total world production of condoms.
In 1978, 5% of all infants in Hong Kong were born to teenage mothers. The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong set up a Youth Advisory Service in 1977 to tofer counseling and medical help to young people under 25 on questions of sexuality. Between August 1977 and June 1980, 835 teenagers, 98% of them female, approached the service for help. The youngest client was 13 but most were 17-19 years old. 7% had finished primary school while the remainder had some secondary education. Most were from lower to lower-middle socioeconomic backgrounds. Few clients who became pregnant agreed to future use of birth control. Reluctance of teenage girls and their parents to accept responsibility for the girls' sexual relationships, peer pressure, and irregular sexual activities were found to be factors in their failure to use contraception. 257 pregnant clients chose to terminate their pregnancies and obtained the required parental consent. Most clients chose to have their infants out of wedlock, and only 2-3% married. The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong has been a pioneer in family life education to help teenagers understand themselves and their sexuality, and to avoid the problems of teenage pregnancy.
Rapid industrialization and modernization in Singapore have created a number of tensions, including an increase in problems related to adolescent sexuality such as sharp increase in the teenage legal abortion rate and high incidence of female teen age marriages with subsequent high divorce rate. Lack of parental supervision, the declining importance of the extended family, the growth of a "peer-group" culture, increased contact between the sexes, and the declining age of menarche are factors in the problem. The teenage abortion rate increased between 1971 and 1976 from 0.8 to 8.1 per 1000, representing a ten-fold numerical increase. A 1978 survey of teenage girls undergoing abortions found that over half had never used contraception due to ignorance, carefreeness, unpreparedness, unavailability of contraceptives, and fear of side effects. The teenage marriage rate rose from 19.1 to 32 per 1000 in 1974 and then fell to 19.8 per 1000 in 1977. The divorce rate for marriages in which 1 or both partners is below 18 is 18.7%, compared to 4.4% for older couples. The government has developed a comprehensive program of family life education for school-children in order to combat the problems of adolescent sexuality.
Australia's volunteer project, Network, operates under the following assumptions: many young people are sexually active as is indicated by the unwanted pregnancies in these age groups; adolescents are in need of information relevant to both their sexual activity and their sexuality and the opportunity to share their views on the reasons for their sexual activity, their needs, fears and conflicts arising form this in an open manner; young people with minimal training can be more effective in talking about sexuality with their own peers in contrast to other formal and conventional methods of sex education; and young adolescents need a more nondemanding atmosphere so that they could decide their level of participation. Toward this end, Network's objectives were aimed at providing a group of trained young volunteers who were prepared to work with groups of young people and an opportunity for these young people to have free access to information concerning contraception and a place and people with whom they could discuss openly matters relevant to them as developing individuals. A group of 10 volunteers was selected in November 1976. They were primarily tertiary eduation students from the field of medicine, social workers, and a YWCA trainee counselor. The 1st stage was to train the group to acquire knowledge in contraceptive technology, their own sexuality and to become comfortable in discussing sexuality and relationships, and group dynamics and group manangement. The Association's staff were to provide the information and to train the volunteers in contraceptive technology. The areas concerned with group work and understanding of one's own sexuality were primarily conducted by 1 of the social workers. In January 1977 the Network began to function on the Family planning Association's (FPA) premises. For the November 1976 to November 1977 period, support from the FPA Council was minimal but the staff was very helpful and assisted in a variety of ways. In June 1978, Network had to be disbanded not because of questioned worth but for other reasons. The FPA based Network suffered from group friction and was limited to the confines of the FPA youth clientele, but after its separation from the FPA, Network faced new problems. There was a need for a paid coordinator as volunteers were already fully committed. Because of lack of funds Network could not get a center of its own. The alternative was to work with and move to other groups. The latter course of action was unsuccessful.
