The Japanese population is shrinking at an alarming rate - almost 300,000 per year. The number of people over 65 is more than twice that of children under 15. But what could be causing the great decline?
Japan Family Planning Association released a survey of 7,000 people between the ages of 20 and 39. Almost 40% reported that they were not interested in a romantic relationship. The majority of these gave the opinion that relationships were too "bothersome" as the reason, while many of the young women said they despised sexual contact.
A similar survey of married couples between 16 and 49 found that half the couples had been sexually inactive over the previous month. Husbands identified the main reason as fatigue from work, while wives claimed it was, again, too "bothersome."
What Japan's media calls sekkusu shinai shokogun, or "the celibacy syndrome," is certainly not fueled by a puritanical moral aversion to sex. This is a county where sex and sin have no relationship.
Given this, and the fact that porn in manga and other forms of media is everywhere, these statistics might come as somewhat of a surprise. In the digital world, however, Nintendo has created a virtual relationship game called Love +. Believe it or not, some young Japanese men are so attached to their virtual girlfriends that they have no interest in real ones.
A survey by Meiji Yasuda Life, a Japanese insurance company, found that in young men under the age of 40, one-third had never dated a woman. In addition, the number of men and women who never marry by the age of 50 is increasing.
The rate of population reduction is anticipated to reach more than 700,000 per year by 2025 and then rise to one million per year by 2060, the year by with the Japanese population is predicted to fall by a staggering 40 million - about a third of the current population!
Related Blogs: The Rise of the Solo Wedding
The Profileration of Middle-Aged Male Virgins in Japan.
