Japan sex crisis: sexlessness among married couples at record high
The Japanese ‘sex crisis’ appears to be deepening after a report suggested a record number of couples are living in a sexless marriage.
A new survey found that nearly half of all married couples had not had sex for more than a month — and did not plan to anytime soon.
The data, gathered from a survey of 3,000 people aged between 16 and 49 at the end of last year, found a 2.6 per cent rise from the last poll, conducted in 2014.
Run by the Japanese family planning association, the survey revealed a record high of 47.2 per cent of married men and women in sexless marriages.
This marks a significant rise from the poll in 2004, when the number of sexless marriages was recored at 31.9 per cent.
The data found that problem was most acute in the mid-to-late 40s age group.
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“The tendency of being in a sexless marriage has increased further,” the association’s president, Kunio Kitamura, said.
“This is the first time over 30 per cent of men answered that they were too tired from work to have sex. Apart from improving working hours, there is also a need to review how people work.”
Last year, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found a significant rise in the number of virgins in the country.
A poll of 5,000 single people aged 18-34 found 42 per cent of men said they had never had sex, and 44 per cent of women.
The problem of sexlessness appears to exist across postindustrial nations, where couples struggle to find the time between busy work lives.
However, in Japan the issue has reached such dramatic levels it has been dubbed a sex crisis.
Last year, researchers at the country’s Tohoku University devised a doomsday clock for when the country would become extinct due to couples no longer having sex.
Although that date is not until August 16, 3766, the clock brought attention to what scientists are calling a ‘demographic timebomb’.
