title: Japanese university students' views on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals based on previous encounters.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To elucidate the acceptability of sexual minorities according to Japanese youth, we conducted a survey targeting university students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were second- to fourth-year students (n=945) at Ibaraki University, Japan, who were randomly chosen for the survey to measure their attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. We divided the respondents into two groups: one group who had encounters with LGBT people, and one group with no such experience. Chi-square tests were used to compare responses between the groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 60% of the students considered LGBT people to be acceptable; the group with prior encounters had greater levels of acceptance compared to the group without such encounters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to clarify the acceptability of sexual minorities among university students in Japan. Our data suggested that having contact with LGBT people in school life may help build an inclusive educational system.
authors.affiliation: Master's Course, Graduate School of Education, Ibaraki University, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Nasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ikuta
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512 Japan, Phone/Fax: +81-29-228-8295.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aoyagi
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsuzaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishihara
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirohara
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Fukumi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Education, Ibaraki University College of Education, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takizawa
keywords: gender identity; inclusive education; sexual orientation