The bar chart illustrates the percentage of students in Japan who were diagnosed with food allergies between 1992 and 2004, with a breakdown by gender.
Overall, the data shows a noticeable upward trend in the prevalence of food allergies among students throughout the period, with a more significant increase after 2000. Initially, boys had a slightly higher percentage of food allergies compared to girls, but this trend was reversed from 1996.
In 1992, both genders exhibited relatively low rates of food allergies, with boys at 4.0% and girls at 3.9%. These figures remained relatively stable over the next six years, fluctuating only slightly. By 1998, the percentages for boys and girls were 4.3% and 5.1%, respectively.
However, a sharp rise occurred between 2000 and 2004. Particularly, the percentage of boys with food allergies surged from 4.5% in 2000 to 7.6% by 2004. Meanwhile, the figure for girls climbed from 4.5% in 2000 to peak at 9.6% over two years, and then slightly fell to approximately 8% at the end of the period.