Record numbers of young Japanese do not have boyfriends or girlfriends, and many do not want one, according to a survey by the country's government. Sixty-one percent of unmarried men aged 18 and 34 do not have a partner, nor do half of unmarried women the same age. The numbers have increased since the previous survey in 2005. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world - and its population is on course to shrink dramatically by the middle of the century. So every five years the government carries out a detailed survey of attitudes to sex and marriage. The latest found that 61% of unmarried men aged 18 to 34 have no girlfriend, and half of women the same age have no boyfriend - a record high. More than a quarter of the men and 23% of the women said they were not even looking. Some cited a shortage of money, others a belief that it is impossible to find a good partner once they had passed the age of 25. Many of the women also said single life suited them better than how they imagined marriage would be. The survey also found that more than quarter of unmarried men and women between 35 and 39 years old said they had never had sex. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15915118
So if 61% of unmarried men are single, but only 30.5% of unmarried women are single, sounds like the problem is some people doubling up on girlfriends I dunno that it means anything without more info though, what percentage of the population is married? How are they defining single? etc etc. Aww. It sounds as if the problem is getting people paired up if no-one's even getting laid, are they working too hard maybe? idk.
man, I spent almost 10 year in Japan and never had a problem with sex...LOL...oh those where the days. LOL
LOL, sure sounds like from the tone of that survey a dude with some game could make a killing in Nippon.
Japanese society has not recovered from the economic downturn that began in the 1990s. It is referred to as a "lost decade" but a decade only lasts ten years. The gainful, and usually lifelong, employment for men that was characteristic of post-WWII Japan has been on a steady decline ever since. As a result, the image of dominant Japanese men who headed nuclear families has taken a hit and left younger generations in search of a replacement model. That is assuming that such a search is made at all?
Japanese culture is caught in a flux of old school tradition versus new school realities.... The sexes there are getting their "freak" on while trying to maintain tradition and culture... As with conditions elsewhere in a world trying to figure out what's going to happen next, the institution of marriage doesn't mean the laws of body bumping have come to an end... They're just keeping that "sex thang" on the low...
I think there's some truth to this. I've read that a disproportionate number of adult Japanese men are obsessed with role playing video games. Add to this the economic stagnation in Japan and many young men feeling they aren't financially stable enough to marry and you have record numbers of Japanese men without female companionship. What's strange is that young japanese men and women don't even seem to be dating all that much. Like there's a generation of introverts who were born there.
Ooh, that's interesting! A friend of mine is living and working in Japan and from what she says, she's pretty much blanked by most of the men and the ones who are interested in foreigners are not ideal...Maybe that explains there being less single women, the women will date the foreigners and the men won't? It'd be interesting to see statistics along those lines.
As someone who lived there for a while, I can definitely see why this is happening. A major part of the culture is that once one becomes boyfriend or girlfriend, there is a major possibility of getting married over a period of time. Unlike here in the states where it's very common to have one night stands, there in Japan it's more about boyfriends and girlfriends. And yes that usually becomes very expensive over time, seeing as Japan itself is very expensive. The biggest ordeal, however lies in the role of marriage. Here in the states, it's still somewhat common when a person becomes married that they still have passion in the relationship. That's not the case in Japan, once a group is married, they figure they already got their man or woman. So they don't put on makeup, they don't dress up, they don't work out, they don't buy flowers. Basically anything that was somewhat resemblent of a relationship becomes a partnership of roles and responsbility, and literally solely that. Than man works, the wife takes the money, pays the bills, and is in charge of house chores. There is literally nothing more to it than that. With that said, we have no room to talk. Japan divorce rate is still at 28% while we are way past the 50 mark already. If anything, marriage wise they are smarter cause they don't go through the whole 50k marriage, just to get divorce 3 years later because they want their freedom back.
It's funny, a Japanese friend of mine (female) was talking to me about this very thing last night. She's got no idea why it is the way it is, but she's after a white or black guy not a Japanese guy, anyway. The last guy she dated was from Uganda (and sexy as hell, according to her :smt042 I'm still waiting to see the pictures ).
It's all about the money! Because of the down economy, people are getting paid less, and jobs are more scarce. Men just don't have enough money to get married anymore. Instead they use the little money they got on Video games, Japanese Porn, electronics, DVD's,...etc. Women are waiting on these men to get some dough. In China, there are 100 million more men than women, because of the one-child rule. Old Chinese farming men who don't have wives, buy young chinese girls from their parents, kidnap them, rape & abuse them. The are trying to get a boy. If the pregnancy is a girl, they get an abortion. This is why the suicide rate (150,000 per year, one girl every 6 minutes) for Chinese girls is the highest in Asia. They drink the pesticides that is meant for the farm crops. They already have a huge shortage of girls, now they are killing themselves?
This has nothing to do with this thread and should have its own. BUT that is so damn sad. Those poor girls! It just makes me want to adopt a baby girl from China.
