99% of Japan's Teens Use Social Media, Survey Says
A survey from Japan's National Institute for Youth Education looked at social media habits among Japanese teenagers compared to those in three other countries.
Over 15,000 high school students from Japan, South Korea, China and the US were surveyed between September 2023 and January 2024.
More than 90% of respondents in all four countries answered that they use some form of social media.
In Japan, just under 99% of teens said they use some form of social media. In South Korea, the number was 99.9%.
About half of Japanese teenagers started using social media in junior high school (12-15 years old).
However, some first started using it when they were in elementary school — with 8% saying they started when they were in their first three years of elementary school (6-9 years old), or even earlier.
And in South Korea, 25% of respondents said they had already started using social media by their third year of elementary school.
The survey also showed how long students in the four countries spend on social media during weekdays.
In the US, just over a fifth of students spend five or more hours on social media on weekdays, the highest among the four countries. Students in China spend the least time on social media, with about a third spending less than 30 minutes on it each weekday.
Japanese and American teens are most likely to use social media for entertainment such as games and music. Teenagers in South Korea and China are most likely to use it to communicate with friends.
