About 73 percent of the 82 female prisoners in their 20s and 30s serving sentences in central Japan said they were sexually abused in childhood or adolescence, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed Sunday.

In the nation's first survey of female prisoners' experiences with sexual abuse, 60 of the inmates said they had been sexually abused before turning 18, with 26 of them saying they had been raped or nearly raped.

Of the 26, 12 said they were raped or nearly raped when they were high school students, 11 when they were elementary or junior high school students, and three before entering elementary school.