Japan has a worrying number of virgins, government finds

[Independent voter]

I wonder if the government will make some commercials promoting sex? With anime characters? It seems like Japan is still a very macho country but everything I know about Japan is from a distance.







Japan's demographic challenges are well-known: It's home to the world's oldest population and has a shrinking birthrate and an astonishing number of single people. And it seems that, despite government efforts to incentivise marriage and child-rearing, things aren't quite trending in the right direction.

According to the Japan Times, a new survey of Japanese people ages 18 to 34 found that 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship. It gets worse: Around 42 percent of men and 44.2 percent of women admitted that they were virgins.

The study is carried out by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research every five years. The organization has noted a marked trend since its first foray on questions of relationships and sex in 1987, when it found that 48.6 percent of men and 39.5 percent of women surveyed were unmarried. In 2010, 36.2 percent of men and 38.7 percent of women in the 18-34 age bracket said they were virgins. The number of children among couples who have been married for between 15 and 19 years averaged a record low this year.

The Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said it wants to raise the nation's fertility rate from 1.4 to 1.8 by 2025. It's offering better child-care services and tax incentives for married couples, though such programs have yet to bear statistical fruit.

Most people surveyed said they want to get married at some point. It's just not clear when.

"They want to tie the knot eventually. But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their ideals and the reality," Futoshi Ishii, head researcher for the study, told Japan Times. "That's why people marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation's low birthrate."

This is not unique to Japan -- in various parts of the developed world, economic uncertainty is reshaping the way millennials and other young people conceive of their sex lives and marital choices. But it's particularly pronounced in the Asian nation, where experts and government officials have spent the better part of a decade fretting over the country's population decline and, as WorldViews once put it, "sexual apathy."

A booming industry surrounds Japan's growing condition of loneliness, a phenomenon at once quite particular to the Japanese, yet also a glimpse into a future where many people live atomized lives mediated exclusively through personal technology.

There was one clearly positive indicator in the survey: For the first time, the proportion of women returning to work after having their first child in Japan's once notoriously patriarchal society exceeded 50 percent.

[Kraenen]

Reminds me of Iran's efforts to shore up the population after the war. I think it worked out for the most part, I don't know why countries believe only immigration can solve a demographic crisis.

[Medusa Cascade]

Once we invent artificial wombs we'll be fine

[greeeed]

Around 42 percent of men and 44.2 percent of women admitted that they were virgins.

Aren't red district complete legal in Japan?

[JohnBrown1917]

Being a virgin is fun though.

[The Flavour Cat]

Why must they worry? The virgins or un-married people aren't doing anything wrong so I say leave them alone.

[The One Percent]

Japan will eventually become a real life anime with all the wizards and robots.

[Nihilist74]

Why must they worry? The virgins or un-married people aren't doing anything wrong so I say leave them alone.

The reason they worry about this has to do with money. The higher the population is, the lower the wages are that business's can get away with paying. If the population is higher, there is always somebody they can replace you with. If you look at the places where wages are the lowest like China and India, they have the highest populations in the world. After the black plague killed a lot of people in Europe in the dark ages, the common people wages went up because there was less of them to hire. They were in demand.

[ZazuuPriest]

Just let the US Marines off base again they'll rape enough women to get the numbers back down to an acceptable level.

[Mihalik]

Japan is obviously training an army of 30 year old Wizards.

[Jester Joe]

The reason they worry about this has to do with money. The higher the population is, the lower the wages are that business's can get away with paying. If the population is higher, there is always somebody they can replace you with. If you look at the places where wages are the lowest like China and India, they have the highest populations in the world. After the black plague killed a lot of people in Europe in the dark ages, the common people wages went up because there was less of them to hire. They were in demand.

I was gonna say Japan's birthrate has consistently been low, but that doesn't really disprove this.

[Deleted]

Japan is obviously training an army of 30 year old Wizards.

Indeed. Shit wont be so funny once they steamroll the entire planet with their legions of Gandalfs.

[Deleted]

I volunteer as tribute.

Japanese women are hot, I tell you.

[Muadiib]

Why must they worry? The virgins or un-married people aren't doing anything wrong so I say leave them alone.

Because every nation with their statistics of childbirth have ceased to exist, they are doomed as are many European nations unless there is massive change.

[Alydael]

Tell Japan to give me a call, I can take care of that for them.

[Independent voter]

A lot of American nerds love Japanese women. Some enterprising entrepreneur could arrange some kind of themed travel package you'd think.

[Mihalik]

Why must they worry? The virgins or un-married people aren't doing anything wrong so I say leave them alone.

Demographics.

A country needs a birthrate at around 2.3 kids per woman to keep the population at a replacement level. Not growing, just a replacement level. As people grow older they drop out from the labor force and turn from tax paying citizens (who fund government services needed to keep them alive) into a burden on the population.

Japan is doubly affected by this, as a lot of their "virgins" also happen to be social recluses, with no jobs, who do not contribute to the economy, dependent on their parents (who aren't getting any younger) and government assistance.

Very very soon Japan is facing a serious demographic collapse, combined with an already run amok deficit and national debt.

The easiest solution of course would be immigration, but that is not a palatable option to a wildly racist and xenophobic society like that of Japan.

While I have no ill will towards Japan or the Japanese people in general, I am somewhat eager and curious to see this unfold, because it is a textbook case study for the rest of the Western world, where birthrates have also been dropping under replacement levels (for reasons other than an unhealthy obsession with pillow girls), Japan will either come up with a solution and provide us all with a road map, or will provide us with the example to avoid.

[Vargur]

Tell Japan to give me a call, I can take care of that for them.

I told him, he said never to call back again.

[Alydael]

I told him, he said never to call back again.

I can't blame him. If someone was going to take 44.2% of my women, I wouldn't call them back either.

[Mistame]

Looks like I know where I need to vacation! I'll drop that 44.2% down to 4.2%.