According to a recent study commissioned by the Japanese government, the country’s desire for sex is dropping quickly.
The biennial survey, originally designed to gauge the success of the country’s birth-control education, revealed that 36.1 percent of Japanese males between 16 and 19 had no interest in or even loathed sex. In 2008, that number was 17.5 percent.
Of girls in that 16–19 age group, 59 percent had no interest in sex, up 12 points from 2008.
Forty percent of married people admitted to not having sex within the last month.
Overall, the fertility rate in Japan has dropped to 1.37 births per woman. It’s 2.06 in the U.S. Such a low rate, if it continues, could have major consequences for the Japanese economy.
All age categories, other than men 30 to 34, reported a general indifference toward sex, compared to the responses from two years ago.
Why such a drop in sexual desire?
The plight of the young Japanese man with no sexual desire has been covered before. They’re known as “grass-eating boys” or “herbivores.” They’re young men with no real interest in sex, a relationship, a career, or most material things. A convergence of two of the country’s biggest problems: the fledgling birth rate and the drop in consumption.
Alexandra Harney wrote about “The Herbivore’s Dilemma” for Slate in June of 2009:
Grass-eating boys’ commitment phobia is not the only thing that’s worrying Japanese women. Unlike earlier generations of Japanese men, they prefer not to make the first move, they like to split the bill, and they’re not particularly motivated by sex. “I spent the night at one guy’s house, and nothing happened—we just went to sleep!” moaned one incredulous woman on a TV program devoted to herbivores. “It’s like something’s missing with them,” said Yoko Yatsu, a 34-year-old housewife, in an interview. “If they were more normal, they’d be more interested in women. They’d at least want to talk to women.”
The herbivores have rejected just about every traditional definition of masculinity. The growing role of women in professional Japan, along with fewer guaranteed-salary positions—formerly a staple of Japanese culture—led to the rise of the herbivore, according to Harney.
At the same time, the increased role of women in Japanese society might be hurting the sex drive of those same women. It’s still a widely held belief in Japan that women should quit their jobs once they give birth. So, they’re rejecting sex and marriage in the interest of a prolonged, more successful career.
As I mentioned, once Japanese men and women get married, their sexual desire doesn’t seem to increase either. For the couples that weren’t having frequent sex, reasons cited were a “vague reluctance after childbirth, that they could not be bothered, or that they were too tired after work.”
If no one’s having sex, Japan’s birthrate can’t increase. And it needs to: the country’s population dropped by a record number in 2010.
What do you think of Japan’s countrywide lack of a sex drive? What about the herbivores? How can Japan right the ship? Let us know.
—Photo mecredis/Flickr
About Ryan O'Hanlon
I think Japan is something of a contradiction. There is a big porn industry in Japan-but folks aren’t procreating-and asexuality is rising. That said, there are Japanese having sex. The biggest orgy in the world was in Japan. Swinging in Japan is becoming much bigger.
the Procreation issue can be handled in part by careful incentives that support parents more effectively.There is a reason why Sweden has a higher birthrate than france or Italy. I’m not saying Sweden is utopia. This stuff would also have to be adapted to Japanese sensibilities.
The thing is:housing in Japan is insanely expensive-which makes the idea of procreating less appealing.
Japanese men area also big on sex tourism-if they have the money. I suspect these herbavoires DO NOT and have given up on it. I think in general:
put money into the hands of young men and they WILL tend to spend it on getting sex in various ways.
get me to Japan and i will find the way to have as much sex as i can
This is actually pretty funny, in a I-have-no-direct-relation-with-this-social-issue-therefore-I-am-not-bothered-by-it kind of way; men are always treated like sexual dogs, yet here they are being treated like “herbivores.” However, I don’t think this has much to do with women getting jobs. Many women over here in the U.S. have careers, and yet men are still categorized as “selfish, sex hounds;” also, as you pointed out, the percentage of women who are not interested in sex has also increased. I think maybe this has more to do with an oppressive/repressive culture and high levels of depression(also, seeking treatment for mental illnesses such as depression is heavily discouraged in Asian cultures). It seems like a unique phenomena to me. That being said, maybe we should stop pretending that the only thing men care about is sex, and conversely, that women don’t want men to be interested in sex
just in case
I don’t know about that, isn’t it plausible that raising the cost of being a husband can lead to some men to graciefully opt out of the marriage contract?
Maybe this is a reflection of modern individualism.
Could be the economic context. One factor is that Japan has a much more workaholic culture than just about anywhere in the world. I don’t know if that’s gotten worse in recent years, but being overworked is very common in Japan. Maybe working long hours just doesn’t feel as fulfilling as it used to be, and with the recession, anxiety about your job translates into lack of interest in other things.
“they prefer not to make the first move, they like to split the bill, and they’re not particularly motivated by sex.”
Male feminists.
“If no one’s having sex, Japan’s birthrate can’t increase. And it needs to: the country’s population dropped by a record number in 2010.”
It’s birthrate doesn’t need to increase. It just needs to open up on its immigration policy if it’s so consumed by economics, like the rest of us are.
That just trades one problem for another.
If you do that then in a century or two there will be reports of how “native” Japanese people are going extinct.
I think another reason for this is the lifestyle in Japan. It’s very expensive and the thought of having a child or being in a relationship is not money wise. Career and stress level is another reason why some people do not have the drive to do it. A relative of mine hates it here in Japan because of all the high taxes and hopes to migrate to other country. and lastly I think the other group of people in Japan that is not career oriented are very satisfied with their hands. some studies show that men who masturbates a lot makes them incompetent and lose their self-confidence in interacting with opposite sex.
I really thing the rest of the world should follow suit.
Yay ! Males no longer want to opress women by having sex ! Feminist victory, heh.
More seriously: men there don’t want to have sex because they are dead tired from work, it is stressful and working too hard is a way to show your dedication to the company (having a family member that died from overworking is for quite a few a badge of honor). Younger guys simply don’t want to share their fathers’ fate so they backpedal furiously whenever a female tries to get laid with them. Of course, it is an atrocious simplification, but you get the picture.
I really don’t know and whatever explanation I could give would seem very superficial since I don’t know that much about the country.
But one I can say is young men with no interest in sex is a GOOD thing not a bad thing. A lot of the negative behaviors men do is caused by having a overheated sex drive. So less young men obsessed with sex means less sexual harassment, aggressive behavior and deception in dating.
Herbivores cause less trouble than predators.
I get what your trying to say but….Darwin did not get everything right but you do realize that without sexual selection you might not exist. There are a lot of negatives in dating but there are positives as well. Even if you could enact less deception in dating you do realize logically that would negate the existence of even what some would call the best of the human race (bird mating behavior is a good starting point). Herbivores do not cause less trouble, that’s relative. I could introduce a foreign herbivore to a new environment and cause competition between two species of herbivore and achieve the same “trouble.”
Living in Tokyo since over 30 years, I think, some reduction of the population is not bad at all – it is crowded with 126 million people on these few islands and with over 36 million people during rush-hour in Metropolitan Tokyo area.
There is a lot of activity going on here day and night, and sex for sure is not everything.
Sex? There is plenty of sex available, your choice what you need and nightlife is fairly open and friendly and legal.
Here you can find everything what you need as a man, any form of sex you can imagine, from sex-comic to 30 minutes hotelroom-quickservice, from a girlfriend up to a long lasting marriage over decades.
About marriage, is there any advantage for a man to marry?
If not why should a Japanese man marry? Any reason to do so?
Are they happy?
That seems like vital information missing from the story although it hints at a “no”, it might just be the angle the story was pitched at. At any rate a reduced population is probably a good thing, but if it is not they can always increase immigration.
Slate article is here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2009/06/the_herbivores_dilemma.html
“Of the 1,000 single men in their 20s and 30s polled by Lifenet, a Japanese life-insurance company, 75 percent described themselves as grass-eating men.”
75% is a lot. It seems that they are choosing a simpler way of life because they have no money due to twenty year long economic downturn. Women are expensive; playing computer games is cheap.
That’s exactly what I was thinking DB. If everyone is happy what’s the problem.? And shouldn’t the headline be “Feminism Wins in Japan”? I see something similar starting here. The Slate article is a little more positive on the turn of events.
That 17 to 36 percent increase in 2 years is absolutely stunning though.
Also of note, Japan has:
High levels of industrial pollution, lots of plastic products with endocrine disruptors like BPA & pthalates, pesticides, lots and lots of stress, and now radioactive waste spewing out of Fukushima for the last year-ish.
All of these factors contribute to declines in testosterone in men.
Plus a lot of the most aggressive, high-T Japanese were killed off in WWII before they could reproduce, thus producing artificial selection of less aggressive men in subsequent generations.
There is no feminism in Japan so it can’t win.
The reason for no sex among married couples is due to overwork. The same is probably true of many youngsters. However there is also a strange asexuality that you find in many Japanese people. For girls its almost like they are too pure for sex. For guys its that they are too disinterested/cool for sex. Nevertheless I think a lot of sex happens. After all they have many love hotels.
Plus many Japanese go to sex workers of various sorts. There are prostitutes, hostesses, and girls who are paid to talk to you.