According to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, it seems that the country has a problem with the health of its students. To be more specific, it seems that they have found that a record high 25.3% of students have failed to meet the 1.0 mark in vision tests, and that perhaps too much time on smartphones and mobile games might be to blame for this.
Breaking these figures down further, it seems that 34.1% of elementary students at 67.09% of high school students do not have 1.0 vision (also known as 20/20 vision), the highest ever in the history of Japan. The ministry writes, “According to experts, this can be linked to the increased time spent staring at screens caused by smartphone usage and mobile games.”
That being said, some have expressed their doubt as to whether or not mobile games and smartphones are truly to blame for this. At the same time, smartphone gaming in Japan is a huge industry as Japan is actually the third largest gaming market in the world, so it’s not surprising that there are many who spend a lot of time on their games.
In the meantime there are some smartphone companies who are introducing ways for its users to manage their time on their phones, and also introducing some health features that help reduce the amount of blue light coming from our devices that are known to be sleep disruptors.