The fad for video games may be ruining the eyesight of Japanese children,

a survey by the education ministry suggests. The results of eye tests carried

out as part of last year’s annual survey of the health of schoolchildren

were the worst on record, with the highest ever number of children having

sight classed as ‘extremely poor’.

This follows a trend which experts say has been evident since the late

1980s – about the time home computer games became popular. The ministry

admits that it does not have conclusive evidence that video games are responsible.

‘But it is difficult to think of any cause other than video games,’ says

an official.

The Japanese system of eye testing is similar to the European one. Both

use 6 metres as the standard testing distance. If you can see clearly from

6 metres, you score 6/6. In Japan, ophthalmologists simply turn this into

a ratio – where 6/6 is equivalent to 1. If you can see clearly only from

3 metres, you score 0.5.

Last year, 1.25 million Japanese schoolchildren – 6.4 per cent of the

total – had their sight tested. Some 60 per cent of high-school students

scored less than 1. One in three high-school students scored less than 0.3

– which is classed as ‘extremely poor’.


‘We want students to abandon their habit of watching television screens

for long hours,’ says an official from the education ministry.

The ministry provides no hard evidence that watching screens damages

the sight, but points to a trend over the past 15 years. The standard of

eyesight reached a low in 1980, soon after video arcade games came into

fashion. The general standard then improved slightly, but began to deteriorate

again from around the mid-1980s, when home computer games became popular.

In 1983, 25.4 per cent of high-school students, aged between 15 and

18, had ‘extremely poor’ eyesight. Last year that figure was 33.5 per cent.

During the same period, the number of middle-school students, aged between

12 and 15, with extremely poor sight increased from 13.4 per cent to 20.4

per cent. Among elementary school students, aged between 6 and 12, the figure

increased from 3 per cent to 5 per cent.

‘It is difficult to be sure of the cause,’ says Takashi Tokoro, professor

of ophthalmology at the Tokyo Medical and Dental Clinic. ‘We can use a

group of children who do not play video games as a control group, in order

to make a comparison. The problem is, if they are not playing video games,

they are usually studying.’ Because too much study can also cause eye problems,

it would be difficult to blame video games alone.

But Tokoro is convinced that the recent trends of increasing use of

video games and worsening eyesight are linked. ‘There may not be any direct

evidence,’ he says. ‘But there is a variety of indirect evidence.’