
Japan's rising sex aversion (2012) - amelius
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2012/04/29/opinion/reversing-japans-rising-sex-aversion-may-depend-on-a-rebirth-of-hope/
======
brad0
> The definition of “sexless” set in 1994 by the Japan Society of Sexual
> Science, a professional organization that deals with all aspects of human
> reproduction, states that this is a condition occurring when someone has had
> “no sexual contact for a month or more.” Sexual contact itself includes a
> host of things, such as “kissing, oral sex, petting and sleeping together
> naked.”

Geez, I’ve been taking a break from women this past year but after reading
this it hits kinda hard. According to this I’ve been sexless for a loooong
time.

Is not having sex for a month really that uncommon?

~~~
dnautics
About 30% of single males have not had sex in six months. It's slightly less
for women, btw, 25% iirc. Rates are higher among the educated. Don't ask me
how I know that.

~~~
55555
Stats are probably similar for those who have been married more than a few
years.

~~~
dnautics
according to the figure I saw for married men it's about 10% and married
women, oddly, 5%.

~~~
brad0
Could this be an error in self reporting or that women are more likely to
cheat in marriages?

------
mozumder
This is happening in the US as well with young people, especially teens. The
US is going to see the same economic stagflation as Japan due to reduced labor
supply.

~~~
tachyonbeam
I wonder if the article is right about the internet being to blame for it.
It's true that it's become ridiculously easy in the past few years to get
access to so much content for free. I think the fragmentation of our culture
might be partially to blame too. Everyone gets their own feed of news
articles, videos and music completely customized to their own tastes, so much
so that we end up having less and less shared culture with the people we see
everyday. One thing is for sure: virtual reality probably isn't going to help.

~~~
toasterlovin
My conclusion is that humans are poorly adapted to modern life. The specific
mechanism is, I think, that our extensive media diets are scrambling the
circuits that kick the reproductive mechanisms into gear. IE, we see the
curated versions of other people’s lives on our Facebook feed and it makes us
feel like we aren’t established enough to be able to properly support a
family. Or we watch too much porn and then we lack the drive to do all the
stuff required to actually attract a mate.

~~~
tachyonbeam
That might play a role, but it also seems clear that modern society somewhat
devalues "settling down" and having children. Portrays that as boring and
lame. I'm not looking to have children, but I'm honestly finding it difficult
to find people who even want a committed relationship at the moment. A lot of
people are only focused on short-term fun. I would guess that this is in large
part a product of our modern capitalistic society being so successful. A
strong family unit is no longer necessary for survival.

~~~
toasterlovin
But I would blame the not wanting committed relationships or a family thing on
media consumption as well.

Settling down and starting a family is a boring, long term endeavor that
doesn’t really play well in most media formats. Therefore it just doesn’t get
any space. The protagonists of basically every TV show do not have families.
And that’s because it wouldn’t be feasible for them to do all the stuff that
makes the plot interesting if they were tied down by a family. And people are
getting cues about how their personal story arc should play out from the media
they consume.

But you’re right that capitalism is excellent at providing the means to life a
life of self involved, hedonistic excess.

------
godzillabrennus
With the rise of nationalism and ending of large scale migrations the
Governments of developed nations will either need to do more to encourage
couples to build a family if they want to reverse this trend or they can chalk
this up as a net positive since the plant can’t continue to sustain a growing
human population.

~~~
nemo1618
There's nothing inherently wrong with a low birth rate -- except that modern
economies seem to be massive pyramid schemes that require a never-ending
stream of fresh blood to remain solvent. It's not like the Japanese are at
risk of going extinct; once the population falls below a certain threshold,
the birth rate will start rising again. They'll survive. But what may _not_
survive is the economic system that borrows against its own future -- a system
that is only sustainable if growth continues, unabated, forever.

~~~
virmundi
You’re presuming no external existential threat. The Chinese have a large, but
aging population. They could move into a weakened Japan within 20 years to
take their infrastructure.

~~~
magnusdeus123
Modern war doesn't work that way. In fact, today, 'war' doesn't actually work
at all.

What China wants is for it's hegemony to be recognized.

Why invade Japan and risk it being highly unpopular at home; being sanctioned
by every major developed economy; militarization of it's neighbourhood, etc.
etc. (on top of actually being unable to actually conquer Japan)

Within 20 years, it could be well within the position of dictating Japan's
foreign, or even some domestic, polices to such a degree to have it
essentially as a vassal state. Japan perhaps willingly chooses to make certain
concessions in return for favourable treatment for China - say if the two
countries considered closer trade relations at one point.

There's also diplomatic & soft power. An aging Japan turning to immigration
which de facto will largely result in an influx of Chinese (already the
largest foreign minority in Japan). These chinese immigrants over time have
more power within Japanese policy.

If China manages to launch it's own cultural industries to the degree of S.
Korea's or Japan's, that would make room for more Chinese influence.

But in the end it works both ways. Young Chinese imitate certain aspects of
Japanese culture as well. It doesn't really need to end in war or even
aggression for both countries to slowly learn to have a meaningful
relationship with each other.

------
andkon
This is from 6 years ago; curious if the trend continued.

~~~
mrgrieves
Sex aversion continues to rise:

“The association released its newest survey for 2014 a few months ago. In that
survey, 65.8 percent of women 16-19 were not interested in sex or felt an
aversion to it, and 39.2 percent of women 20-24 felt the same way.”

[http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23/...](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23/aziz-
ansari/startling-stat-checks-out-46-percent-young-women-j/)

~~~
cryoshon
these numbers are skyrocketing; within 10 years (should the trend reach its
logical conclusion, which i doubt that it will), there will be zero japanese
interested in sex.

------
JoeAltmaier
Self-reporting about sexual activity might not be the most accurate. What we
can conclude: its become more popular to claim to have an aversion to sex.

