In a country that has one of the world's lowest birth rates, a lack of intimacy among its citizens may prove to be catastrophic, or at least according to government officials. That's what's currently happening in Japan, the Guardian reports, the nation experiencing a "celibacy syndrome" as its under-40s continue to lose interest in dating, marriage and even casual sex.
A survey conducted in 2011 found that 61 percent of unmarried Japanese men and 49 percent of Japanese women between the ages of 18-34 were not in any kind of romantic relationship. Another study found that a third of people under 30 had never dated at all, the results published by the Meiji-Yasuda Life and Welfare Research Institute earlier this year. In Japan, a country "mostly free of religious morals," there has long been a separation between love and sex, though both are of decreasing interest to Japan's young population.
In a survey conducted earlier this year by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA), 40 percent of women between the ages of 16-24 reported that they "were not interested in or despised sexual contact," and more than a quarter of men reported similar sentiments. Japanese men who eschew the responsibilities associated with relationships and marriage are nicknamed "herbivores," or or soshoku danshi (literally, "grass-eating men"), though many don't seem to mind the label.
Government officials fear for the worst, as the national press refers to the phenomenon as sekkusu shinai shokogun, or "celibacy syndrome." Kunio Kitamura, head of the JFPA, even fears the country "might eventually perish into extinction."
Dreams of living the single life and pursuing a career collide with conservative pressures of conforming to the salaryman lifestyle and either becoming or marrying one and acting as a stay-at-home wife and mother. But as Japanese men become less career-driven due the waning of lifetime job security and Japanese women become more independent, potential marriages and matches are looking less attractive, especially with the sky-high costs of living and the lingering old-fashioned beliefs of older generations (including potential in-laws) that a marriage's purpose is to produce children.
As for children, Japan's "punishing corporate world makes it almost impossible for women to combine a career and family, while children are unaffordable unless both parents work." Around 70 percent of Japanese women leave their jobs after having their first child, the country often ranked as one of the world's worst for gender equality in the workforce.
The country is also undergoing a "major social transition after 20 years of economic stagnation," according to the Guardian, as citizens deal with the ongoing scarring effects of 2011's tsunami, radioactive meltdown and earthquake.
"Both men and women say to me they don't see the point of love. They don't believe it can lead anywhere," sex and relationship counselor, Ai Aoyama, said to the Guardian. "Relationships have become too hard." In many of Japan's major cities, the sexes are "spiralling away from each other," according to Aoyama.
"Remaining single was once the ultimate personal failure," Tomomi Yamaguchi, a Japanese-born assistant professor of anthropology at Montana State University in America, said to the Guardian. "But more people are finding they prefer it.
