
50% of Japanese surveyed have not had sex in the past month - jrambos
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-01-25/the-japanese-government-is-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-get-its-people-to-have-more-sex
======
Afforess
It's not the technology nor the porn. It's the stress and work hours. Japanese
work very long hours, and very hard jobs. High stress and very little free
time create exhausted people who do not have time to do anything but attempt
to recover for the next day. Tired people do not have energy nor motivation,
get sick more, and don't have time to socialize or to date.

Japan needs labor reform, shorter working days, more vacation time.

~~~
mimighost
Exactly. Japanese style work ethic is a pandemic spread across east Asia, in
which, devotion(even pretended) wins over efficiency. It also leads to a
paternalistic company structure, where your workplace is your home and your
boss is the owner.

Ultimately, this sacrifices the employee's personal time by blurring the
boundary between life and work. Sadly, a lot of researches show long working
hour doesn't necessarily leads to actual output, but the ideology is still
largely respected and practiced.

~~~
mc32
How does this explain herbivore men and otaku and the stay at home 'parasites'
(parasaitu shinguru) who have quite a lot of free time on their hands from
engaging in sex with a steady partner -rather than soapland stuff or out
abstinence/grazing.

~~~
frivoal
Easily: look outside, decide the world is still a fucked-up place, stay
inside. "Normal" social interactions with other people will drag you into
society, and you sure don't want that, avoid that too.

------
brandonheato
The title on HN is downright misleading. "... the Japan Family Planning
Association interviewed 3,000 subjects, both male and female, about their sex
lives." Those aren't couples, they're just random men and women from what I
understand this text.

Also, I have lived in Japan for the past 5 years and around me at least a lot
of people are (very) sexually active, in fact, too active, or too casual
usually. Most guys date multiple girls/have multiple sex friends, and even if
they're married or in a relationship, many have sex partners other than their
girlfriend/spouse.

Despite the misleading title, I wouldn't be surprised if couples reply that
they haven't have sex with each other for the past month and were telling the
truth (because they're too busy having sex with other partners).

~~~
Kiro
How old are you?

~~~
brandonheato
Turning 32 this year.

------
lern_too_spel
It's interesting that these articles always bring up weird Japanese
subcultures. The fertility rates of Singapore and Republic of Korea are lower
than Japan's, and they have fallen far more precipitously (by more than 75%
since 1960). The mainstream pop-demographics articles about those countries'
fertility rates tend to focus more on the realistic explanations.

~~~
kalleboo
Or maybe more relatable to westerners: Germany also has a lower fertility rate
than Japan. Nobody's writing these articles about why Germans won't have kids.

I'd be more interested in articles exploring how we can create an economy and
society that doesn't rely on neverending expansion (and ever-increasing energy
usage), seeing as this is the trend in all western countries, and the
immigration band-aid will only be possible for so long.

~~~
raverbashing
Germany can "import" any EU national as well as the immigrants (not all of
them EU nationals) having a higher fertility rate.

~~~
kalleboo
That's not a solution though, that's a band-aid. I guess I understand that's
why it's not in the news today, but personally I'm more interested in the
long-term than short-term.

As countries develop the fertility rate drops. This is happening across the
planet. Eventually there won't be anywhere to get new immigrants. (there will
also be problems before that if you look at places like France, the UK and
Scandinavia where resistance against immigration is rising in the form of
anti-immigration parties)

~~~
raverbashing
I agree, in the long term countries will have to learn how to deal with low
fertility rates.

------
lifeisstillgood
As a slight tangent, patio11 and his partner in crime/podcasts Keith Perhac
talked a little about this on their podcast - basically the hours /
presenteeism culture of salarymen has an anecdotal negative impact on family
and married life there - basically too knackered.

It's an odd trade off that is not really needed - so it's interesting to see
what will happen as the discussion of it moves from "what everyone knows but
does not say" to " officially allowed to say it because of science"

------
h4xr
Japan has been in 25-30 year recession. Due to government polices the Japanese
have seen their wealth deteriorate and the hardest hit are the young
professionals who have work more than their elders. If people don't feel
financially secure they don't procreate. This issue is only going to grow more
pronounced as nations devalue in the race to the bottom. However for Japan the
problem is exacerbated with great ideas like the one below. FTA:

“handsome tax”: “If we impose a handsome tax on men who look good to correct
the injustice only slightly, then it will become easier for ugly men to find
love, and the number of people getting married will increase.”

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Don't fertility rates _decrease_ with prosperity? Poor families have more kids
because they acts as financial security in the old age. How do we reconcile
these two theories?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Fertility rates decline most strikingly due to the education of women in
society:

[http://www.earth-
policy.org/data_highlights/2011/highlights1...](http://www.earth-
policy.org/data_highlights/2011/highlights13)

"Female education is especially important. Research consistently shows that
women who are empowered through education tend to have fewer children and have
them later. If and when they do become mothers, they tend to be healthier and
raise healthier children, who then also stay in school longer. They earn more
money with which to support their families, and contribute more to their
communities’ economic growth. Indeed, educating girls can transform whole
communities."

A bit older study:

[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/97facts/edu2birt.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/97facts/edu2birt.htm)

"A women's educational level is the best predictor of how many children she
will have, according to a new study from the National Center for Health
Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study, based on an
analysis of 1994 birth certificates, found a direct relationship between years
of education and birth rates, with the highest birth rates among women with
the lowest educational attainment.

Birth rate patterns also vary greatly by mothers age. Among women in their
twenties - the peak childbearing ages - and women in their forties, birth
rates are highest for women with the least education. For women with college
degrees, rates are highest for those in their early thirties, perhaps
signaling the preferred time for childbearing by this group. First birth rates
for women in their thirties with a college degree were two to five times the
first birth rates for women with less education."

------
Freeboots
Those stats seem slightly misleading. The 49% of participants who had not had
sex in the past month seems to include people who are single. I wouldn't be
surprised to find that the 50% of couples include couples who havnt had sex
ever.

Still interesting.

------
leichtgewicht
Sex is not fun. Someone needs to say it. Unless you and your partner are
devoted to sex it is not fun. In a society where one of the partners doesn't
have a voice (woman, usually) that doesn't matter because consent is per-
definition not necessary to produce children. Games probably trigger a lot
more endorphins than sex (over the span of a day, or week).

Education means to care about things other than the immediate future and we
learn to sympathise with each other. We do care about the opinion and about
other goals which is why we spend time caring about the bigger goals more than
about the fun ones. After all: fun is for children... This whole combination
makes enjoying sex incredibly difficult imho.

Making sex fun is an effort many people don't go through. I talk with Japanese
friends (I am living in Japan for 4 years now) and many just don't know the
least about it. I am guessing that its similar for other cultures.

------
CmonDev
You have a choice:

1) spend all your money on yourself and have around 6 hours of free time every
workday + weekend and be moderately happy.

2) make a lot of effort of approaching different girls, getting rejected and
then spending your time and money on the girlfriend (and she could still cheat
on you meanwhile) and potentially be quite happy.

[http://www.singularity2050.com/2010/01/the-misandry-
bubble.h...](http://www.singularity2050.com/2010/01/the-misandry-bubble.html)

------
unimportant
Employment prospects are worse than ever for the average japanese person, with
about 40% of the workforce working on temp contracts with no job security.

Shitty income and no job security = no marriage = no kids.

------
dutchbrit
For other population declines, see:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline#Japan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_decline#Japan)

------
gamesbrainiac
What is with the media and its fixation on japanese sex?

~~~
mc32
Maybe because on the one hand they're 'liberalized' about it --you have the
soaplands and the manga and the pixelation, everywhere --and yet, where it
counts they reject it, to some extent.

But yeah, when it comes to fetishising societies and sex it's either Japanese
or Swedes.

~~~
draugadrotten
> But yeah, then it comes to fetishising societies and sex it's either
> Japanese or Swedes.

Maybe this is because these countries are extremes of Collective vs
Individuality.

Source:
[http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&art...](http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6075694)
and
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Values_Survey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Values_Survey)

------
rasz_pl
Knowing Japanese porn Im not that surprised. Japanese men are between awkward
and weird when it comes to interacting with women.

------
waps
Here's wikipedia's overview of Birth rates :

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_de...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_birth_rate)

You can sort it. It's quite informative. It also shows that the difference
between Japan and most of Europe is somewhat marginal. 8 vs 10.

But what would be a "steady-state" birth rate ? Well life expectancy is ~70
years. So 1000 people should produce 1000 offspring in ~70 years. So steady-
state birth-rate would be in the 14-15 range. Changes compound over time, so
numbers close to 14-15 will effectively be equal to that whereas differences
with that number have exponential effects.

That seems to indicate that the vast majority of the world is slowly losing
population (though that does not -yet- result in large declines of people). On
the map that would be everything blue, green up to bright green, with sub-
saharan Africa the only place that will experience rapid population growth
from now on.

~~~
kalleboo
But despite the low birth rates in Europe, the populations are still rising
through immigration. So we've turned the developing countries into "baby
machines" to fuel the European economy's thirst for growth.

~~~
Squarel
They are only just rising.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union#Population_projections)

~~~
waps
Looking at my comment history, I get the impression someone's systematically
downvoting all my comments. Can I report this anywhere ?

------
ANTSANTS
Oh dear, a paywall. Here's a similarly milquetoast but literally more
accessible treatment of the topic:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2...](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2009/06/the_herbivores_dilemma.html)

But don't close that tab, 'cuz I'm coming at ya with the Silicon Valley
bleeding heart liberal nouveau riche's most hated news publication, Breitbart!
Be offended! Take the bait, hook, line, and sinker! Reply with a snarky
dismissal insulting the intelligence of anyone that would dare link to such a
rag! And maybe, just maybe, taste the subtle grit of a grain of the substance
we call "truth."

[http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/04/the-sexodus-
part-...](http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/04/the-sexodus-part-1-the-
men-giving-up-on-women-and-checking-out-of-society/)

[http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/09/the-sexodus-
part-...](http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/09/the-sexodus-
part-2-dishonest-feminist-panics-leave-male-sexuality-in-crisis/)

~~~
htns
Japan is very different from the West though, so you should clarify which
parts you think actually apply to Japan too. E.g. Japan is well behind the
curve compared to the West when it comes to sex disparity in school dropouts
or university attendance, though it's certainly moving in the same direction.
(See
[http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/](http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/),
and click on gender differences and then limit to education, you get women 7.7
men 7.6 in Japan vs women 7.3 men 6.3 in the US)

