Apparently 1/3 of 15-19-year-olds in Japan have no interest in sex?

[FenrisWolf]

OK, so I'm not entirely sure this is in the right topic area (I can never quite decide!) but here's a recent thing I discovered:

Huffington Post

Unfortunately I can't view the video on that site because apparently America gets all the cool stuff (but us rest-of-the-worlders can view it here: BBC World), but the text below explains the findings of the research.

To summarise:

36% of males aged 15-19 either had 'no interest in sex' or 'despised sex'.

59% of females aged 15-19 either had 'no interest in sex' or 'despised sex'.

For males that's a 19% increase on the 2008 figures, for females it's 12%.

Now, these can't all be asexual. I've read speculation that it's due to the unrealistic portrayals of women in the media turning young people off sex, that there's too much disparity in the expectations of men and women in their partners, and other such theories... I'm not sure what to think. Any thoughts, people?

[Philip027]

As far as I'm concerned, good. The people of that age should be concentrating on their generally-vastly-superior-to-American education rather than bothering with That Stuff at that point in their lives, anyway.

[Member33070]

x

[test account]

Surveys mean little. I disregard them unless they say what I want them to say, and then use that to give 'credibility' to my arguments. That's the only use they have. People answer surveys according to their mood at the time, or because of the way the questions are posed, or because they want to project a certain image (even when the survey is anonymous). And that's among the people who are the sort to actually be bothered to answer surveys. Add to that the biases of the person conducting the survey, and the sample size....Frankly, they're not a reliable indicator of anything much.

[cleuchtturm]

Wasn't there a recent topic just like this posted a few weeks/months ago? Or am I just having deja vu?

[FenrisWolf]

Wasn't there a recent topic just like this posted a few weeks/months ago? Or am I just having deja vu?

Really!? Shoot, I did a search in case this'd been posted before, but if this has been posted before I must've missed it. :S

[cleuchtturm]

Wasn't there a recent topic just like this posted a few weeks/months ago? Or am I just having deja vu?

Really!? Shoot, I did a search in case this'd been posted before, but if this has been posted before I must've missed it. :S

http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php?/topic/69530-japanese-teens-disinterested-in-sex/page__p__2045238__hl__japan__fromsearch__1#entry2045238

[herpaderderderderder]

I don't think this is a good age to do this kind of survey with. Their minds and bodies are still developing, so it's not going to give an accurate outcome. That's just my opinion, though.

[SorryNotSorry]

If Japan's people in general have figured out that promiscuous people are full of crap and shouldn't be allowed to make the rules, then more power to 'em.

[cleuchtturm]

If Japan's people in general have figured out that promiscuous people are full of crap and shouldn't be allowed to make the rules, then more power to 'em.

Isn't that a bit elitist to say? What does being promiscuous have to do with who should be making rules and who shouldn't? And how does being promiscuous equal being full of crap?

[Flyin'Solo]

Unfortunately the video and articles tells little about the circumstances behind anyone's disinterest in sex. The young man they interview says that he feels like relationships are too much work. I can only imagine is true for many others in what I understand to be a competitive work and career oriented culture. But need that necessarily tie in to their lack of interest in sex? More importantly, might the article be overlooking something by not discerning these two separate things-- sex and relationships?

Interestingly, the Huff Post article also mentions the theory that many people are opting out of relationships for virtual girlfriends instead. This makes me a little uncomfortable because of the fact that, if indeed these people are going to be regarded as asexual, then asexuality is going to be conflated with being "afraid" of relationships in the real world, and we've all been down that road before...

They also speak about women "getting stronger", which I'm assuming is meant to imply that under the right economic and cultural circumstances, women don't need men. Has it always been the case that heterosexual women were in relationships with men simply because they are physically and economically dependent upon them? If so, I don't feel like this is readily acknowledged very often and if it were it would illustrate some intensely sexist flaws in our culture(s) and economic structure(s).

[cleuchtturm]

Has it always been the case that heterosexual women were in relationships with men simply because they are physically and economically dependent upon them?

For the most part, yeah. Women were seen as delicate flowers that needed protecting. Don't even get me started on the Victorian era. I love the darn thing so much, I could go on for days about it.

Note: I don't love the way women were treated in the Victorian era, but I just find that era fascinating.

[Mismatched]

I think this might also have something to do with how this generation is raised. I don't think that they have many siblings and many of these guys might be only children. Growing up being the only one and the family catering to you (to an extent) to push you forward and not having to share any attention with siblings and such. To be in a relationship one would have to share space and time with another person, and due to being only children, that concept might feel like a foreign concept to them. They have gotten use to having their space and the potential of possibility to have sex isn't enough for them to want to give up that space.

That is only what I think personally. Also there are many sexual outlets, such as virtual girlfriends, hentai, etc. I saw this documentary about the prevalence of hentai, while at the same time the women feel very safe. It was very poignant in the documentary to have these guys looking at this sexual image of this Japanese school girl on a poster, above actual Japanese school girls walking by. But these guys only noticed and fixated on the poster, and didn't really care to look at the real girls.

I don't think that the Japanese are superior or inferior since there is a trend to forgo physical intercourse, it is just a by product of their culture, things that have happened in the past, and current trends. It does seem a bit unfortunate that a culture might be drastically reduced in size in the future, so all the best to them.

[Henny]

Surveys mean little. I disregard them unless they say what I want them to say, and then use that to give 'credibility' to my arguments. That's the only use they have. People answer surveys according to their mood at the time, or because of the way the questions are posed, or because they want to project a certain image (even when the survey is anonymous). And that's among the people who are the sort to actually be bothered to answer surveys. Add to that the biases of the person conducting the survey, and the sample size....Frankly, they're not a reliable indicator of anything much.

I definitely see your point when it comes to things like the dreaded internet poll. But when it comes to surveys like these? Better indicator than wild mass guessing, I'd say.

[oneofthesun]

I think this might also have something to do with how this generation is raised. I don't think that they have many siblings and many of these guys might be only children. Growing up being the only one and the family catering to you (to an extent) to push you forward and not having to share any attention with siblings and such. To be in a relationship one would have to share space and time with another person, and due to being only children, that concept might feel like a foreign concept to them. They have gotten use to having their space and the potential of possibility to have sex isn't enough for them to want to give up that space.

Japan does not have a one-child policy. AFAIK there aren't more only-children there than anywhere else.

[Mismatched]

I think this might also have something to do with how this generation is raised. I don't think that they have many siblings and many of these guys might be only children. Growing up being the only one and the family catering to you (to an extent) to push you forward and not having to share any attention with siblings and such. To be in a relationship one would have to share space and time with another person, and due to being only children, that concept might feel like a foreign concept to them. They have gotten use to having their space and the potential of possibility to have sex isn't enough for them to want to give up that space.

Japan does not have a one-child policy. AFAIK there aren't more only-children there than anywhere else.

I never said that they have a one-child policy. But a country does not need a one-child policy to have about one child per family. It just turns out that they have about the same amount of children per family as China. Japan already has a low birth rate, one of the lowest in the world.

http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/indicators/SP.DYN.CBRT.IN

Japan is second from the bottom. So I don't think they would have as many children per family as anywhere else in the world.

[Batman's Ace]

Um, my thoughts? It's a different culture. What with technology (including addictions) and the stress of succeeding amid loads of holdover ideas that are anything but Western, I'm not surprised relationships aren't the number one priority. That's not necessarily a completely bad thing, especially at that age range. (Maybe I'm just showing my aceness here, but isn't 15 a little young for a survey of this kind? Wouldn't asking people in their 20s be a little more telling?)

[red_brick_dream]

I think this is just part of a larger reactionary kickback against Japan's strict, macho culture which emphasizes hard work and hard play. They call them "herbivores" - the guys at least. Men who've embraced "feminine" values and shunned the machismo of their parents' generation.

I'm probably oversimplifying this, and I'll make no secret of how little I really know about Japan and its culture, but that is the prevailing memeplex with regards to Japanese youth's supposed lack of sexual virility.

I'm inclined to think that this is simply the bees' knees, though intellectually I know that this is probably symptomatic of some cultural growing pains, rather than the birthing of some sort of asexual wonderland (though I sincerely wish this were possible, let alone so). Still though, I could conceive of this having a positive net effect, in that modern life behooves certain adjustments on our part, and to that end, waning "masculine" values and a decreased prevalence of sex, whether "real" or reactionary, could be a force for good.

But I daresay I'm a tad biased on the subjet :P

[bromance]

I think this is just part of a larger reactionary kickback against Japan's strict, macho culture which emphasizes hard work and hard play. They call them "herbivores" - the guys at least. Men who've embraced "feminine" values and shunned the machismo of their parents' generation.

I'm probably oversimplifying this, and I'll make no secret of how little I really know about Japan and its culture, but that is the prevailing memeplex with regards to Japanese youth's supposed lack of sexual virility.

From what I know, most of these "herbivore" guys are metrosexuals in their 20s and early 30s, not teenagers.

These kids probably have no interest in sex because of the crazy school workload. How many people can think about sex when they're getting 3 hours of sleep? Gotta get into that University of Tokyo y'all!

http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php?/topic/69530-japanese-teens-disinterested-in-sex/page__p__2045238__hl__japan__fromsearch__1#entry2045238

So much generalization all just in one thread.

[Unbanned]

I think this is just part of a larger reactionary kickback against Japan's strict, macho culture which emphasizes hard work and hard play. They call them "herbivores" - the guys at least. Men who've embraced "feminine" values and shunned the machismo of their parents' generation.

I'm probably oversimplifying this, and I'll make no secret of how little I really know about Japan and its culture, but that is the prevailing memeplex with regards to Japanese youth's supposed lack of sexual virility.

I've read about this, too.

Japan's Government is freaking out because the country is aging and the workforce decreasing. They spend quite a bit of money on advertising sex to the younger generations, apparently. :lol: