The aim of human sexuality education theories during the 1920s in Japan : on the argument of Senji Yamamoto

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the aims of human sexuality education theories during the 1920s in Japan, focusing on the argument of Senji Yamamoto (1889-1929), who was one of the representative authorities on sexology of the 1920s. This paper compares his argument with that of Eiji Habuto and Junjiro Sawada, whose theories about sexual desire and sexuality education were the most popular at that time. Yamamoto's argument and Habuto and Sawada's arguments were similar, in that they both emphasized the imparting of scientific knowledge of sexuality. However, they differed on two points. First, Habuto and Sawada imparted scientific knowledge of sexuality that was imported from the West without taking into account the circumstances of the sexual life in Japan. On the other hand, Yamamoto insisted that the scientific knowledge based on Western sexology should be reexamined after comprehending the sexual lives of ordinary people in Japan. Second, their aims for imparting scientific knowledge were different. Habuto and Sawada thought that scientific knowledge was useful for making people understand the evil of sexual desire, thereby convincing them to lead the type of sexual life that they believed was right. However, Yamamoto wanted people to acquire the knowledge of sexuality and to use this knowledge to decide for themselves as to how they should behave