Survey finds a third of young Japanese men are not interested in sex

[quarridors]

According to this article (from the Daily Telegraph), 35.1% of Japanese men aged 16 to 19 (from a sample of 671) said they are not interested in or averse to sex. AVEN defines asexuality as not experiencing sexual attraction and that isn't what this survey was asking, but it seems these guys could qualify as grey-a or demisexual (depending on how you define them and obviously how they'd self-identify). I'd be interested to hear what they'd answer if asked about experiencing sexual attraction.

This raises an interesting question about whether the occurrence of asexuality in the population varies in different countries/cultures.

Full article follows:

Third of young Japanese men not interested in sex

More than a third of Japanese males aged between 16 and 19 have no interest in or are actively averse to sex, according to a government survey.

Japan's birth rate stands at 1.21 per family, far below the rate of 2.08 babies that is required for a stable population.

As of March 2009, Japan's total population stood at just over 127 million, but that figure is projected to decline to 95 million by 2050. And if more drastic measures fail to encourage people to have sex - and hence children - then there will be a mere 47.7 million Japanese at the turn of the next century.

According to the survey of 671 men and 869 women, issued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 35.1 per cent of men aged 16 to 19 said they are not interested in or averse to sex, more than double the 17.5 per cent of men in the previous study in 2008.

"Obviously, the most important reason for Japan's declining birth rate is that people are not having sex," Dr. Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association, told The Daily Telegraph.

"Combined with the rising number of elderly people, this population imbalance is a major problem," he said.

Equally worrying, he said, is the increase in the number of married couples who are officially recognised as "sexless," meaning they have not had sex for more than one month.

The figure has risen to 40.8 percent of all married couples, up from 36.5 percent two years ago and 31.9 percent in 2004.

The government has attempted a series of campaigns to encourage couples to have more children - from making companies insist that their staff leave work at 6pm to increasing child allowances - but none of that is gong to have an impact if people are not going to have sex, Kitamura said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8257400/Third-of-young-Japanese-men-not-interested-in-sex.html

[Samael]

Very interesting. I'm tempted to move to Japan then.

As an asexual I just might fit in :D

[Philip027]

I'm half Japanese... wonder if that factors in to how I am. I'm not in Japan though...

Very interesting. I'm tempted to move to Japan then.

As an asexual I just might fit in

Well, uhh...

The government has attempted a series of campaigns to encourage couples to have more children - from making companies insist that their staff leave work at 6pm to increasing child allowances - but none of that is gong to have an impact if people are not going to have sex, Kitamura said.

Just as long as you keep in mind that, with findings like these out, it just means that there's going to be more pressures from society for people to have loads of secks and churn out tons of babies. o_O

[TreacleSponge]

Interesting stuff.

As regards the variation in asexuality across countries/cultures, my feeling is that it all depends on whatever the prevailing "norm" is. Most heterosexuals are latent identifiers, they don't think much about this side of their life and as they fit in they don't need too, so they just assume they are heterosexual rather than figuring it out from first principles as it were. So, it makes some sense to think that if the closer a society's norm is to asexuality the more people will identify with it when you ask them.

Put another way, I think the biological side of it is probably the same wherever you go, but cultural reasons mean people would answer such surveys differently in different countries. I don't know much about Japan (blokes spend stupidly long hours with work people and less at home, no?) so no idea how their specific background fits with my theory.

[Samael]

I'm half Japanese... wonder if that factors in to how I am. I'm not in Japan though...

Very interesting. I'm tempted to move to Japan then.

As an asexual I just might fit in

Well, uhh...

The government has attempted a series of campaigns to encourage couples to have more children - from making companies insist that their staff leave work at 6pm to increasing child allowances - but none of that is gong to have an impact if people are not going to have sex, Kitamura said.

Just as long as you keep in mind that, with findings like these out, it just means that there's going to be more pressures from society for people to have loads of secks and churn out tons of babies. o_O

Heh, well, they can encourage or pressure all they want, but if so many people are indifferent or averse to it, that's something quite rare already.

[SASE Icecream man]

this is peculier. I wonder if its a gene or something, passed down. Not that asexuality itself is a gene, but that whatever is causing those japanese men to be (maybe) asexual. Like, over the years they didn't want to, but had it anyway, and only now that they have a third of men asexual (maybe), they are rebelling. Just a thought.

[Blerdivor]

this is peculier. I wonder if its a gene or something, passed down. Not that asexuality itself is a gene, but that whatever is causing those japanese men to be (maybe) asexual. Like, over the years they didn't want to, but had it anyway, and only now that they have a third of men asexual (maybe), they are rebelling. Just a thought.

My guess would be that it's a cultural shift.

[Blerdivor]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

[Siggy]

It's definitely a cultural thing. Did you notice that they only gave results for men? In Japan there is a cultural phenomenon called "herbivore men". Google it.

I think it is naive to assume that this is necessarily a completely positive development for asexuals. I don't know, I'm not an expert on Japanese culture. But it's entirely possible that this could contribute to asexual invisibility (if people who don't like sex are seen as culturally motivated), or cause other problems.

[nleseul]

I think it is naive to assume that this is necessarily a completely positive development for asexuals. I don't know, I'm not an expert on Japanese culture. But it's entirely possible that this could contribute to asexual invisibility (if people who don't like sex are seen as culturally motivated), or cause other problems.

If asexuality has a cultural aspect, though, why should it matter? If anything, if sex drive is something that even can be culturally conditioned out, that pretty much proves the point of asexuals anyway—it can't be this huge biologically innate thing that every healthy person should have, if it's that vulnerable to cultural conditioning.

[Niemand]

It's funny, I was just reading about this. Thought I'd add a few more quotes, if that's all right:

The percentage of male respondents who said they had no interest in or had an active aversion to sex stood at 18 percent -- an 8-point jump from 2008 figures. The percentage of women who agreed rose 11 points to 48 percent. There were particularly sharp increases in the 16 to 19 year old age range, where the percentage of females with no appetite for sex went from 46.9 percent in 2008 to 58.5 percent in 2010, while among males the rate more than doubled from 17.5 percent to 36.1 percent....

...The number one reason among married men for foregoing quality time between the sheets was tiredness from work at 19.7 percent, while among married women the top reason was that sex is "too much trouble," at 26.9 percent. The number one reason shared by both wives and husbands was a lost of sexual interest "somehow or another" after having children, which registered 20.9 percent.

From: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110113p2a00m0na006000c.html

Men between 20 and 24 showed a similar trend [of decreased interest in sex], jumping from 11.8 percent to 21.5 percent, while men between 45 and 49 leaped from 8.7 percent to 22.1 percen

From: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110113x3.html

I have a friend who's taking a course called "History of sexuality", about sexuality in Ancient Greece, where homosexuality was much more accepted and, admittedly while I don't have statistics, it seems like being gay was more common in that society than nowdays, where 3% of the population is gay. It really makes me think about how maybe culture/society can have a large effect on sexuality, when normally we assume it's all innate/biological/inborn, etc. I also remember reading in a Psych textbook that the importance given to different aspects of a relationship (e.g. committment versus passionate attraction) varied among cultures, with collectivist cultures (e.g. Japan) putting a lesser value on the latter than individualistic cultures (e.g. the US).

(Edited to add another quote I forgot.)

[EricK]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

[Rebuilder]

Ah! A very interesting note. From my personal experience I have seemed to notice Asian cultures do not view sex as we do the way in the West. I have been to China myself and I noticed there, sex is not something which is openly discussed or mentioned. It should also be noted that many people in my family might be asexual. Also my parents are likely closet asexual/gray-a, at my house sex i like the big white area that everyone tries move around. In the end, I don't think the western concept of Sexual Orientation can be smoothly applied to different cultures.

Cheers!

[Blerdivor]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

Immigrants aren't the same. If they really wanted that I'm sure they'd be advertising for that.

[Asexy Existentialist]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

But they wouldn't be preserving the ethnicity and the culture, the heritage. It's kind of like replacing the raisins in Raisin Bran with dried pineapple. It's still fruit, yes, but it's not Raisin Bran anymore.

[Matters Of The Heart]

Pineapple Bran doesn't sound too terrible.

[Blerdivor]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

But they wouldn't be preserving the ethnicity and the culture, the heritage. It's kind of like replacing the raisins in Raisin Bran with dried pineapple. It's still fruit, yes, but it's not Raisin Bran anymore.

Yeah that's a good way of putting it.

[Siggy]

I think it is naive to assume that this is necessarily a completely positive development for asexuals. I don't know, I'm not an expert on Japanese culture. But it's entirely possible that this could contribute to asexual invisibility (if people who don't like sex are seen as culturally motivated), or cause other problems.

If asexuality has a cultural aspect, though, why should it matter? If anything, if sex drive is something that even can be culturally conditioned out, that pretty much proves the point of asexuals anyway—it can't be this huge biologically innate thing that every healthy person should have, if it's that vulnerable to cultural conditioning.

That begs the question. Is it in fact asexuality? I'm betting they don't identify as asexual. They probably don't have the same motivations as asexuals. They probably have a very different conceptualization of what it means to forgo sex.

Compare to the celibate priesthood. They may not be having sex, but do you really think that they are completely asexual-friendly?

[EricK]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

But they wouldn't be preserving the ethnicity and the culture, the heritage. It's kind of like replacing the raisins in Raisin Bran with dried pineapple. It's still fruit, yes, but it's not Raisin Bran anymore.

Talk of preserving ethnicity, culture and heritage all sounds quite racist to me. It's not like Japanese culture of today is anything like, say, the Japanese culture of a hundred years ago even (and the same goes for almost all countries).

People are people; cultures change over time anyway whether people migrate or not - all it takes is new ideas and the migration of ideas - and I hope nobody wants to stop that; and heritage belongs in history lessons.

[Asexy Existentialist]

i think it's bizarre that the government is encouraging people to have more children. don't get me wrong, i fully understand why... but it just seems like a strange aspect of the nation's citizen's lives for the government to be attempting to influence.

I guess in a modern world it's weirder to talk about, but it's either that or be royally fucked as a country.

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

But they wouldn't be preserving the ethnicity and the culture, the heritage. It's kind of like replacing the raisins in Raisin Bran with dried pineapple. It's still fruit, yes, but it's not Raisin Bran anymore.

Talk of preserving ethnicity, culture and heritage all sounds quite racist to me. It's not like Japanese culture of today is anything like, say, the Japanese culture of a hundred years ago even (and the same goes for almost all countries).

People are people; cultures change over time anyway whether people migrate or not - all it takes is new ideas and the migration of ideas - and I hope nobody wants to stop that; and heritage belongs in history lessons.

But that's not racist, anymore than the Latinos in America making their cultural foods, or the Jews celebrating Hannukah. It's their identity and they want to keep it going. They don't think their culture is better (well, maybe they do, but that's not the point here) they just want it to continue.

And Raisin Bran is probably made of different things than it was originally, too - but it still has raisins and bran flakes.

[Guest]

Why? There are millions of the people in the world who are looking for better countries to go to. Declining birth rate in one place can always be counteracted by immigration from another.

But they wouldn't be preserving the ethnicity and the culture, the heritage. It's kind of like replacing the raisins in Raisin Bran with dried pineapple. It's still fruit, yes, but it's not Raisin Bran anymore.

Talk of preserving ethnicity, culture and heritage all sounds quite racist to me. It's not like Japanese culture of today is anything like, say, the Japanese culture of a hundred years ago even (and the same goes for almost all countries).

People are people; cultures change over time anyway whether people migrate or not - all it takes is new ideas and the migration of ideas - and I hope nobody wants to stop that; and heritage belongs in history lessons.

Japan is very averse to letting immigrants into their country on a permanent basis. It may be racism, but that's just how it is there. For example, a couple of generations ago some Japanese immigrated to Brazil to work. Their part-Brazilian descendants tried to come back and were either kicked out of the country or had a very hard time staying, I can't remember exactly. People with no Japanese background are going to have a much harder time being allowed to live there permanently.