If you are looking for romance with a woman who appreciates (in desperate need of) an affectionate man, Japan is the place to go...
Japan in desperate need of affectionate men

You heard the man; Japan needs your help!

Those numbers are quite insane, though. The article hints at social inaptitude being part of the problem, but seriously?

Ah, the joys of statistics.

I don't understand that at all. Why... no sex. Those ladies need help from us foreigners!

Dang, it is as if they want to exacerbate their demographic crisis! It's high time they started importing industrial quantities of young, healthy, sexually active Japanophiles from abroad to enable the Japanese culture to survive long after the Yamato race breeds itself out of existence.

"The survey was carried out Sept. 11-28 and covered 3,000 people nationwide aged 16 to 49. Valid replies were received from 671 men and 869 women."
Hmmm, I don't know how representative a survey of 3000 members can be, when trying to reflect a society of 120.000.000 people.....
The number of valid replies is just over half of the originally asked people leaving 1500 responses.... So I think that survey means NOTHING.

Quote:over a third of men aged 16 to 19 had no interest in sex.

What, how is this possible??! They're teenage boys..in Japan! A land of hot weather + skinny asian females + J-porn - that figure is mind-boggling..

Quote:The main reasons given for the drop in sexual activity were a vague reluctance after childbirth, sex as too much of a hassle, and work-related fatigue.

Yeh good reason - it is a lot of bother isn't it..

Quite crazy. As vonPeterhof suggests, maybe this can be solved by a new cultural exchange JET type program?

Raschaverak Wrote:"The survey was carried out Sept. 11-28 and covered 3,000 people nationwide aged 16 to 49. Valid replies were received from 671 men and 869 women."
Hmmm, I don't know how representative a survey of 3000 members can be, when trying to reflect a society of 120.000.000 people.....
The number of valid replies is just over half of the originally asked people leaving 1500 responses.... So I think that survey means NOTHING.

It's not a great sample, but you wouldn't expect those sorts of figures in many other countries regardless. I don't know about the wussy young guys thing, but the married couples stat isn't at all surprising (well, maybe lower than expected).

Am I in Gaijinpot forum by mistake?

aphasiac Wrote:

Quote:over a third of men aged 16 to 19 had no interest in sex.

What, how is this possible??! They're teenage boys..in Japan! A land of hot weather + skinny asian females + J-porn - that figure is mind-boggling..

WSJ's website also mentioned this study and one of the comments pointed out that this may have to do with the fact that people younger than 20 are not considered (and do not consider themselves) adults yet, so they are likely to give inaccurate responses to questions about sex. I personally would have felt really awkward answering questions about sex back when I was 16, even if they guaranteed anonymity.

And, in case I failed to make my previous post obviously sarcastic, I was kidding - I actually dread the day when the Japanese government decides to start "recruiting" random weeaboos to move to Japan in order to procreate. Sure, a less restrictive immigration policy would be nice, but I hope the situation will never get so bad that they end up having to encourage and subsidize people to settle in Japan.

Personally, after living in Japan for more than one year, work-related fatigue really can destroy your libido... I don't want to give too many details away, but me and my partner are frequently both really tired after a day's work. While we have certainly not sunk to the level of the people in the survey, I would say that Japan's work ethic is powerful enough to negatively affect the libido of most people who come to live here, despite all the porn that is being thrown at you from everywhere...

Btw, I looked at that news link, and next to it had a survey regarding the manga censorship controversy. If young people are not interested in having sex anymore, it seems like there is not much point in "cleaning up" manga anymore....

Not again.

Good time to toss this in too:
Japanese women tire of their men

(Not really new news to some of us I imagine, but the most interesting part of that article was actually the mention that if you stay in Japan the household maintains conservative Japanese values regardless of the woman's desires. If they go abroad though they pick up western values.)

vonPeterhof Wrote:I actually dread the day when the Japanese government decides to start "recruiting" random weeaboos to move to Japan in order to procreate.

Whoa, whoa whoa. I want to procreate with some Japanese females, but what is your definition of a weeaboo?

Just one thing caught my attention:

Kitamura of JFPA Wrote:...but they should also understand that sex can be a very fun and fulfilling activity" Kitamura said.

Is it true?

TheVinster Wrote:Whoa, whoa whoa. I want to procreate with some Japanese females, but what is your definition of a weeaboo?

Basically an uncritical and delusional Japanophile whose idea of Japan and its society is predominately based on anime/manga/video games/tokusatsu/etc. (I have to admit that there was a short period in my life when I fit that description pretty well, and some of my acquaintances think I still do).

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with such people coming to Japan - culture shock is probably the best medicine for them. I just have this nightmare scenario playing out in my head, where the Japanese government decides to radically change its immigration policy in response to the demographic crisis. Going by the principle of "If we don't ban it, we subsidize it", they start sponsoring an immigration encouragement program. But they think that mass immigration may pose a threat to Japan's culture and social cohesion, so they decide to attract only people who display a keen interest in and an affinity for the Japanese culture. After the program is launched they find that the number of genuinely well-informed Japanophiles is not big enough to satisfy their demographic demand, so they gradually lower their standards to accepting just about anyone who oozes passion for all things Japanese. I have heard that the JET selection process does a somewhat decent job at weeding out such applicants, since they are looking for English teachers and cultural ambassadors who are just as able to teach about their own culture as they are willing to learn about that of Japan, but in this scenario that would not be necessary. So eventually Japanese taxpayers will end up paying for the importation of masses of misinformed youths, most of whom will end up disillusioned very soon and very few of whom will successfully assimilate.

vonPeterhof Wrote:

TheVinster Wrote:Whoa, whoa whoa. I want to procreate with some Japanese females, but what is your definition of a weeaboo?

Basically an uncritical and delusional Japanophile whose idea of Japan and its society is predominately based on anime/manga/video games/tokusatsu/etc. (I have to admit that there was a short period in my life when I fit that description pretty well, and some of my acquaintances think I still do).

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with such people coming to Japan - culture shock is probably the best medicine for them. I just have this nightmare scenario playing out in my head, where the Japanese government decides to radically change its immigration policy in response to the demographic crisis. Going by the principle of "If we don't ban it, we subsidize it", they start sponsoring an immigration encouragement program. But they think that mass immigration may pose a threat to Japan's culture and social cohesion, so they decide to attract only people who display a keen interest in and an affinity for the Japanese culture. After the program is launched they find that the number of genuinely well-informed Japanophiles is not big enough to satisfy their demographic demand, so they gradually lower their standards to accepting just about anyone who oozes passion for all things Japanese. I have heard that the JET selection process does a somewhat decent job at weeding out such applicants, since they are looking for English teachers and cultural ambassadors who are just as able to teach about their own culture as they are willing to learn about that of Japan, but in this scenario that would not be necessary. So eventually Japanese taxpayers will end up paying for the importation of masses of misinformed youths, most of whom will end up disillusioned very soon and very few of whom will successfully assimilate.

Oh, okay, I don't fit that. I'm glad. Weeaboos were a pain in Japanese class.

@TheVinster

vonPeterhof gave you the theoretical definition. In practice, it's when any non-native Japanese person expresses an interest in the Japanese language or culture, or takes the 'Japanese side' when that side is created in online articles and arguments.

It's kind of like how a 'troll' is someone who disagrees with you on forums.

For the last few weeks, I have been asking my students if they have any New Year's resolutions. Almost every 18-22 year old student I have asked told me they want to find a boyfriend/girlfriend (My lessons are one on one). When I get this response from young women, it just kind of blows my mind how such a beautiful creature is not being enjoyed by anyone. I ask the guys how many girls they have approached over the last few months and the answer is typically, "None". They seem to have a fear of failure from pressure to get good test scores that extends to fear of being rejected by girls as well.

This post became a little long...woops.

@vonPeterhof:
Same here on weeabo, I was that way when I first started learning about Japan and Japanese. At some point I started reading stuff about skewed views on "what you think is "real" in Japan." And made it a point to research heavily and find the real side of Japan. Result being when I finally got to visit recently for year; no culture shock. I actually had reverse culture shock when I came back.

Since we slipped into this discussion on population. I will say that I think the big thing that Japan simply needs to do is relax what it takes to get a work visa. Right now you need a BA/BS and support from a company to get in. Technically it stops an influx of people that will essentially become homeless as soon as they get there, but it really makes it difficult for anyone to do legit jobs in Japan besides teaching since most places looking for foreigners want someone with a work visa already.

tl;dr for below: Japan is FUBARed in population growth and in continual support of the country on pure native labor.

That aside, my nightmare scenario is that Japan slowly decays until its a nation of half of its size now and can't support it self. I don't see this ever happening but there is a MASSIVE culture shock tsunami on the horizon for Japan. Most of the anti-immigration and the slow opening of the country (the govt actually put money on the table if immigrate workers wanted to return home, they would pay them to leave) is because of old people. Additionally I can't ever see them allowing massive immigration from any large developed country like the US, UK, Canada, Germany; simply because of fear that it will affect high level jobs at corporations. To date, a lot of the labor import has been from Chile, Philippines (nurses), Brazil (and Argentina?? not sure on this one), and these are the guys they really wanted to send home recently. The nurses have to pass a test that is harder than most Japanese tests (which JP can't even pass) and if they fail they are sent back home. This at a period when Japan will soon need a lot more support in their health care system to support nearly a 1/3 of their population that will be retiring in the next 10-20 years. I think some of the younger generation realizes this and the rest I think just don't care or are oblivious to the problem that is coming. At this point there is no way for them to feasibly solve the problem.
I've been reading on this for years now and I'm still amazed at how big of a mess the situation is. Its a multifaceted problem ranging from conservative, backward-thinking old farts running the country to heavily ingrained social ideas (Marriage, the household, working, relationship forming).
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@bodhisamaya:
I agree. I heard this a lot from fellow students at the university I was at as well: 「彼女いいな～」「ホシイ～」
I also concur that I think it stems from the idea that they lack a backbone to approach women, but I think it stems from an early age. This is my pure opinion/theory that I concocted while in Japan and watching people, but it feels like there is a strong divide between the sexes in Japan. It is hard to put to words except to say to simply that the idea of having friends with the other sex are rare, in Japan. All I have are observations and examples, such as noticing that in clubs, guys almost never really bothered to talk to the girls that were in the club or vice versa. At club events, the sexes segregated and didn't talk with each other up until everyone was drunk. It really boggled my mind since everyone wanted a 恋人 but no one ever seemed to want to take advantage that they were all in a group where they have similar interests of some sort to spring board off of. I've decided the cause of the problem is the heavy focus on group-think that exists in Japan/Eastern countries and the fact that from a young age everyone (not just in Japan) tends to stick with their own gender groups because its "safer." This problem simply continues all the way into adult life. Obviously someone can say its similar in other countries as well with sticking to gender groups but somewhere, somehow, along the line the genders intermingle quite a bit (at least they did at my high school in the US). It could be that maybe popular media perpetuates the problem somehow, but I think you can see proof of the "no guy has a lot of friends that are girls"-thing simply by looking at anime, which tends to use that concept as a plot device quite often (and often times the other guy's in the anime are jealous he has the friends).
That said. As far as girls go, they'll never get guys because 99% of them want a guy to come and ask them out (which is no different than elsewhere in the world, but still). Or their preferences are somewhat unreasonable.

bodhisamaya Wrote:For the last few weeks, I have been asking my students if they have any New Year's resolutions. Almost every 18-22 year old student I have asked told me they want to find a boyfriend/girlfriend (My lessons are one on one). When I get this response from young women, it just kind of blows my mind how such a beautiful creature is not being enjoyed by anyone. I ask the guys how many girls they have approached over the last few months and the answer is typically, "None". They seem to have a fear of failure from pressure to get good test scores that extends to fear of being rejected by girls as well.

Yeah, I know a lot of gorgeous gorgeous women who say they can't find boyfriends.

vix86 Wrote:Same here on weeabo, I was that way when I first started learning about Japan and Japanese. At some point I started reading stuff about skewed views on "what you think is "real" in Japan." And made it a point to research heavily and find the real side of Japan. Result being when I finally got to visit recently for year; no culture shock. I actually had reverse culture shock when I came back.

Yeah, I pretty much did the same. Is it possible to experience culture shock without ever having set foot in the country in question? Because I feel like that's what I underwent during that research . But then again, I have already lived in four different countries and I never had much of a problem readjusting, so I imagine Japan will be only marginally more difficult to get used to.

vonPeterhof Wrote:Yeah, I pretty much did the same. Is it possible to experience culture shock without ever having set foot in the country in question? Because I feel like that's what I underwent during that research . But then again, I have already lived in four different countries and I never had much of a problem readjusting, so I imagine Japan will be only marginally more difficult to get used to.

I guess you could suffer culture shock while researching, but I think some people still won't believe what they read until they see it first hand. Someone I met some months ago fit the weeabo profile so much and he was asking me all these questions on Japan that were so far out compared to what its really like...

I suppose it depends on what countries and settings it is. The closest thing I had to culture shock while I was in Japan was the overwhelming sense of being a foreigner. In a European/US country you can blend in until you open your mouth usually. If you are a non-Asian person in Japan you can't do that. So when you walk around and always see Japanese people and sometimes see them noticing you; it can be overwhelming. There were a few people in the exchange program that had a very difficult time adjusting to that and as a result always felt like "society was watching them," would be the best way to put it. If you visit as a tourist, I think you might never really feel it as I never got the feeling until I was there for about 2-3 months and had settled in a bit. By time I left 7 months later I actually enjoyed the feeling and it was one of the weird things about coming back to the US--being able to blend into the crowd. The other reverse shocks were customer service, no girls in skirts, and fat people.

I know a few pregnant Japanese girls at the moment through work. I would say that married people are too stressed, tired and distant at times to have "relations", especially after having kids. Then again, that's not much of a surprise for couples in the western with pre-teenage children, right.

Also, young people are actually way more active than they'll admit (especially the girls) from the amount of group dates some of the people I know go on. I've also got a few friends who do Skype dating and they have mentioned that they are doing pretty well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is Japanese people are BUSY people. The average worker or mom has less time than their western counterparts. Of course, they have less time and energy for their partners or even for dating. Then again you could blame it on too much manga (adult or otherwise)...

Cranks Wrote:the amount of group dates

This is incidently what led me to believe that the gender division has led to some messed up situations. 「二人デート」 was difficult to come by for many people it seemed, people always wanted to do stuff in groups, or have the "illusion" of doing something as a group. Its weird. I'm not sure if its a Japan vs West thing or what, but I always viewed it as a reason why relationships are hard to come by if you can never get some time together to get to know one another.

That aside. You basically hit one of the problems leading to less marriage and less births. Work culture pushes people to their limits to such a point that when they have free time, most just want to stay at home and ボウーして(can't think of the Eng word I want to say), or sleep. Some companies have started to try and change this but it has been slow from what I hear. The thing that will repopulate Japan will be a change in cultural thought on long work hours, more stable jobs (ie: less "temp jobs"), and more incentives for people to 1) marry and 2) pop some kids out (See: Kids are $$$, espc. in japan).

vonPeterhof Wrote:So eventually Japanese taxpayers will end up paying for the importation of masses of misinformed youths, most of whom will end up disillusioned very soon and very few of whom will successfully assimilate.

Isn't that basically what they're doing now? Or would you say the majority of the 10,000 foreigners the government pays for each year are teaching/assisting with awesome English lessons while steaming towards N1? Anyway, isn't it more likely that such an influx would be from China and other Eastern countries as opposed to anime-obsessed Americans? Not that it sounds particularly likely.