The media narratives about Japan typically conform to a handful of familiar tropes: Japan is a sexless, childless hellscape, or Japan is a kinky, weird land of bountiful sexual fetishes.
Of course, neither is true. Japan is just Japan, with all shades and colors.
But it is a fact that the population is declining and people are having fewer children. The number of babies born in Japan dropped below 800,000 last year, the first time this has happened since records began in 1899.
The reasons for this are manifold — and we think they are primarily economic — don’t rush to assume it’s because people are not having sex, or that young people under 30 simply aren’t dating (the recent growth of dating apps and services industry seems to suggest otherwise) or choosing 2D characters over flesh-and-blood partners.
True, married and long-term couples probably aren’t having as much as they might like (or even any at all) because of the crazy work culture in Japan, plus the inevitable decline in sexual passion that sets in after a while.
But having children can also be a death sentence for a married couple’s sex life, since kids tend to sleep with their parents (or at least, with their mom) and walls are thin.
So ironically, the declining birth rate might be proof that couples actually have a decent sex life! They’re just not using it to procreate.
A recent survey that got a lot of media coverage found that half of unmarried people under 30 in Japan have no interest in starting a family.
The respondents cited such factors as economic concerns and the burden of parenting.
The survey was carried out by Rohto, a major pharmaceutical firm, as part of its annual white paper pregnancy. It is the highest such result it has found to date.
Of the 400 respondents — alright, not a huge sample — 49.4% said they didn’t want kids. And it’s not just the guys either. Granted, more men said they didn’t want offspring (53%) but the number was also quite high for women (45.6%).
The survey also noted a decline in the number of men and women actively trying to have kids, a result that may reflect a return to pre-pandemic work culture and couples spending less time together.
