2018 Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 299-308
An aging society with a declining birthrate has become a problem in Japan and China, making it important to favor improving lifestyles over increasing life expectancy. University students majoring in sports science can become leaders in improving the health of these nations.
Participants included 98 Japanese and 76 Chinese male university students from Fukuoka and Inner Mongolia, respectively. An anonymous questionnaire was administered in July and March 2015 to examine whether their lifestyle was healthy.
In addition, we compared Japanese and Chinese textbooks on health and physical education and examined the health education contents.
Based on breakfast, smoking, and drinking habits, the Japanese students had a more desirable lifestyle than the Chinese ones; 10.2% （10/98） of the Japanese students were smokers, while 52.6% （40/76） of the Chinese students smoked. Based on their daily bedtime and sleeping habits, the Chinese students had a more desirable lifestyle than the Japanese students.
We found that the Japanese students scored an average of 25 points on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, while the Chinese students scored about 30 points, which is similar to the findings from a previous study.
Health education is featured twice as much as physical education in Japanese textbooks for junior high and high school students. Students learned about "smoking and health" in the fifth and sixth grades, junior high, and high school.
While practical skills of physical education account for most pages, the Chinese textbooks have about a quarter of the pages compared to the Japanese ones on health education for junior high school students. There was no description about lifestyle-related diseases and prevention, such as smoking. The Chinese textbooks of physical ,and health education used in high schools describe that sports increase physical health and cognitive and social abilities, which allows students to adapt. They contain content on "sports and the nourishment of self-esteem and confidence", resulting from participation in sports.
The smoking rate of Japan was lower than that of China, and it was suggested that there was an effect of the Japanese health education.
