Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

[Brainwrong]

I found this incredibly sad, disturbing and interesting in equal measure.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

Official alarmism doesn't help. Fewer babies were born here in 2012 than any year on record. (This was also the year, as the number of elderly people shoots up, that adult incontinence pants outsold baby nappies in Japan for the first time.) Kunio Kitamura, head of the JFPA, claims the demographic crisis is so serious that Japan "might eventually perish into extinction".

Japan's under-40s won't go forth and multiply out of duty, as postwar generations did. The country is undergoing major social transition after 20 years of economic stagnation. It is also battling against the effects on its already nuclear-destruction-scarred psyche of 2011's earthquake, tsunami and radioactive meltdown. There is no going back. "Both men and women say to me they don't see the point of love. They don't believe it can lead anywhere," says Aoyama. "Relationships have become too hard."

Thoughts?

 

[Stirlinghibee]

I found this incredibly sad, disturbing and interesting in equal measure.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

Official alarmism doesn't help. Fewer babies were born here in 2012 than any year on record. (This was also the year, as the number of elderly people shoots up, that adult incontinence pants outsold baby nappies in Japan for the first time.) Kunio Kitamura, head of the JFPA, claims the demographic crisis is so serious that Japan "might eventually perish into extinction".

Japan's under-40s won't go forth and multiply out of duty, as postwar generations did. The country is undergoing major social transition after 20 years of economic stagnation. It is also battling against the effects on its already nuclear-destruction-scarred psyche of 2011's earthquake, tsunami and radioactive meltdown. There is no going back. "Both men and women say to me they don't see the point of love. They don't believe it can lead anywhere," says AoGunta. "Relationships have become too hard."

Thoughts?

I was also reading somewhere that the Jap guys are now so fixated with Technology that they no longer have any interest in females. These guys grew up as gamers , and their social circles are such that they only ever interact with them through headphones and microphones.

Also, the lassies are not keen on all these geeks, obviously, and fantasise about the likes of Beckham etc. A kind of "virtual" boyfriend.

Shame really, as I have a huge amount of time for the Japanese. They , to me, are the worlds most functioning society (apart from the lack of shagging). They also kept a lot on manufacturing here, while our White , Christian English speaking friends could not close their factories quickly enough.

 

[Brainwrong]

I was also reading somewhere that the Jap guys are now so fixated with Technology that they no longer have any interest in females. These guys grew up as gamers , and their social circles are such that they only ever interact with them through headphones and microphones.

Also, the lassies are not keen on all these geeks, obviously, and fantasise about the likes of Beckham etc. A kind of "virtual" boyfriend.

Shame really, as I have a huge amount of time for the Japanese. They , to me, are the worlds most functioning society (apart from the lack of shagging). They also kept a lot on manufacturing here, while our White , Christian English speaking friends could not close their factories quickly enough.

Agreed. Without being even vaguely a scholar, I have a fixation with Japan. The massively diverse landscapes & geology, juxtaposed with the mental ber packed mega cities, the amazing and detrimental work ethic, the astounding approach to project work, the personal sacrifices willing to be made for the good of society, their unparalleled contribution to electronics & technology and some of the best music for a foreign speaking country I've heard.

What a waste.

 

[aggie]

Absolutely fascinating, and I identify in many ways.

I'm 39. I live with my 5 yr old daughter, whose mum has been gone for four years. I'm now a full-time student, and plan on pursuing a career in teaching. I have enough familial support to enable me to go to the football, and out at night once a week. I have a core group of long-standing friends.

I had a relationship for a year which ended a few months ago. It was long-distance (Edinburgh-London), which suited me fine. The end came when expectations began to creep in - was she ready to move here? If so, was she ready to assume a de facto parental role? Was I able to countenance that role to be fulfilled? The answer was no on all counts. I was sad, but have moved on quickly.

My point is: in truth, if I could satisfy my need for sex in another way, I wouldn't want a girlfriend, let alone a partner. I simply don't see the benefits; or, put another way, the benefits long-term things offer are not important to me, not enough to outweigh the drawbacks.

This worries me on two counts. First, how do I get the sex? The ideal scenario is a "f**kbuddy". However, they are hard to come by! I have neither the funds for nor the inclination towards prostitution - I do kind of like to feel that the other person at the very least finds me attractive.

My second, and more troubling worry is that I might be effectively condemning my little girl to a life without a mother figure. Saying that though, it has just been we two since she was 1, and she is doing fine so far - thriving, in fact. I have a large family that includes many strong women. Plus, I have seen the hell many other single parents go through with managing the relationship with their ex - I don't have that dynamic to deal with.

In short, I wonder that my being troubled at all is simply an effect of the social conditioning we were talking about on another thread, when the reality is that I have no need for a partner outside of satisfying my animal instincts.


Bet I sound really attractive now, eh?!

 

[Brainwrong]

@aggie I think your situation is vastly different. These Japanese folk have NEVER procreated and see absolutely no reason or can find zero justification to do so.

You have procreated and have a solid situation that you're happy with.

Oddly enough, my current fling has become complicated because I already have kids. I'm told I'm utterly perfect for her, and i and i am, we both are, but as she wants to start a family at some stage she wants to do that with someone who doesn't already have kids. I can totally understand that, it's pish, but I understand it.

Fitting a new parent in can be an absolute nightmare because you end up being the mediator and having to worry about everyone's feelings, the kids, the parent. You end up being completely unable to win whatever happens. It's a can of rancid zombie worms.

Fuckbuddies are great until they start loving you!

 

[SKII]

Money, the cost of real estate and social class/traditions come into the equation big time. One of my friends married a Japanese woman and moved out there to live. He learned Japanese, got a job in the university in the city they live in and has now been there over a decade. At 6 ft 5 and built like Peter Crouch, he's a bit of a tourist attraction to boot. They would love kids but, even with academic salaries, they can't afford a house. They live in a pod like creation, many floors up and have a lifestyle many light years away from his upbringing in Renfrewshire.

His take on Japanese culture is fascinating. Most young people can't afford to leave the family home as real estate is at a premium and majorly expensive. Pay is age linked in Japan too and they pay a great deal for their education - meaning the people of reproductive age are burdened with disproportionate financial responsibilities. Space is tight in most homes and so reproducing brings major logistical problems - where do you literally put the new body? Being the very sensible, logical lot they are reproducing becomes a bit of a problem. There is still a culture of women being expected by default to be stay at home mothers - government policies don't support the concept of women returning to work, childcare provision etc so women are voting on this with their lifestyle choices and not having babies. Unlike Western Europe, there is next to no immigration in Japan, for a host of reasons, so the short fall is not being made up by the kind of "Polish baby boom" being seen elsewhere in Euro parts of the G8


BBC News - Japan: The worst developed country for working mothers?

The Japanese dictionary now even has a word in it to address the problem - 'shoshika' (means a world without children).

 

[aggie]

@aggie I think your situation is vastly different. These Japanese folk have NEVER procreated and see absolutely no reason or can find zero justification to do so.

You have procreated and have a solid situation that you're happy with.

You are correct, and therein lies an interesting truth, perhaps; i.e. whether that imperative is what finally impels even the most intransigent of relationship-phobes to finally submit to the paradigm of the family unit.

Given that in my situation, not only is the other parent long-gone, but us having a child was an accident which occurred outwith anything resembling a fully-fledged relationship, and we subsequently never entertained any pretensions to create a family unit forthwith. Hence, it's interesting to consider that I have been effectively able to circumvent the usual process on my way to procreating, and have become and been a parent in what's as close to a vacuum in terms of the surrounding relationships as I could realistically have got without recourse to test tubes.

As a result, I don't associate having a happy life with a child as being axiomatically the product of being in a long-term relationship, or indeed that a happy child is axiomatically the product of a happy nuclear family. Is this why I am so utterly ambivalent to the idea of love and long-term relationships? I don't condemn them, and completely accept that they are a possible way to happiness, but by the same token I don't see them as a necessary prerequisite for a happy existence - viewed pragmatically and experientially in my case, they are actually more of a hindrance.


Again, I feel like I'm back in the wrong thread..:hmmm

 

[DM Hibs]

Because they haven't seen Is banned in his onesie.

 

[aggie]

@aggie do you think you'll feel differently when you're daughter is a little older and not so dependent on you?

I guess I might, WH. Ask me again in about eight years or so!!

 

[MixuDave]

Because they haven't seen Is banned in his onesie.

Thanks mate
@aggie while I can see your point, am at my happiest when I am in a settled relationship. I also have full faith that my current partner will be a good role model for my 10 year old daughter, when the time is correct to introduce them to each other.

 

[egb_hibs]

I was also reading somewhere that the Jap guys are now so fixated with Technology that they no longer have any interest in females. These guys grew up as gamers , and their social circles are such that they only ever interact with them through headphones and microphones.

Also, the lassies are not keen on all these geeks, obviously, and fantasise about the likes of Beckham etc. A kind of "virtual" boyfriend.

Shame really, as I have a huge amount of time for the Japanese. They , to me, are the worlds most functioning society (apart from the lack of shagging). They also kept a lot on manufacturing here, while our White , Christian English speaking friends could not close their factories quickly enough.

I suspect de-Christianisation is actually linked to our closures, although I can't substantiate it. What is clearly the case is that Japan held onto notions of nation and culture very far removed from our own multi cult and thus is reflected in their loyalty to indigenous labour and production.

However, in wider cultural respects it has been in slow motion crisis - defeat of the god emperor caused a rejection of indigenous culture and an adoption from the victorious (and therefore superior) west. The japs soon became more western than the west and now blaze a trail in all the tends that threaten the whole shooting match.

The most atheist of all western countries, one of the most deracinated despite racial homogeneity, one of the most materialist.... Small wonder there pressure cooked spiritually desolate young people are giving up the ghost - they are only a pronounced example though , as opposed to unique. Parts of Europe are even worse - regions in Eastern Germany have the lowest reproductive rate in the world. As an aside this caused me to find somewhat 'short termist', a guardian article announcing these very places as the future of Europe by dint of the, being the most atheist.

 

[BVilleggiante]

Sounds like they need me over there. Only problem would be the next generation would all be brothers, sisters and cousins.

 

[Jack]

I was also reading somewhere that the Jap guys are now so fixated with Technology that they no longer have any interest in females. These guys grew up as gamers , and their social circles are such that they only ever interact with them through headphones and microphones.

Also, the lassies are not keen on all these geeks, obviously, and fantasise about the likes of Beckham etc. A kind of "virtual" boyfriend.

Shame really, as I have a huge amount of time for the Japanese. They , to me, are the worlds most functioning society (apart from the lack of shagging). They also kept a lot on manufacturing here, while our White , Christian English speaking friends could not close their factories quickly enough.

Sounds about right to me and there's all parts of it happening here too.

One guy, 22, recently haulled off the Bridges was asked why he wanted to jump, it was because he split up with my first girlfriend, they had been going out for 2 weeks!!!

Obviously not all gamers can take the chance of leaving their machines for long enough to make a two week relationship work.

F5 doesn't work in real life.

Likewise I see young lassies with a celeb magazine in one hand and cream bun in the other.

Overheard one at the hotel I'm at just now going on about how she spends all her money on designer cothes so she can look just like [I didn't catch the name but she pointed inside the magazine]. Whoever it was I thought 'naw she fucking duzny' unless it was Dumbos mum.

 

[blue toon hibby]

Because they haven't seen Is banned in his onesie.

More likely because they HAVE, surely?

 

[Stirlinghibee]

I suspect de-Christianisation is actually linked to our closures, although I can't substantiate it. What is clearly the case is that Japan held onto notions of nation and culture very far removed from our own multi cult and thus is reflected in their loyalty to indigenous labour and production.

However, in wider cultural respects it has been in slow motion crisis - defeat of the god emperor caused a rejection of indigenous culture and an adoption from the victorious (and therefore superior) west. The japs soon became more western than the west and now blaze a trail in all the tends that threaten the whole shooting match.

The most atheist of all western countries, one of the most deracinated despite racial homogeneity, one of the most materialist.... Small wonder there pressure cooked spiritually desolate young people are giving up the ghost - they are only a pronounced example though , as opposed to unique. Parts of Europe are even worse - regions in Eastern Germany have the lowest reproductive rate in the world. As an aside this caused me to find somewhat 'short termist', a guardian article announcing these very places as the future of Europe by dint of the, being the most atheist.

Indeed so.

If you are ever in Durham , come to St Josephs on a Sunday morning, not a pew to be had and a massively diverse and friendly congregation.