It is now widely recognized globally that unmarried status, declining birth rates, and sexlessness are common problems in developed countries. However, despite their seriousness, research on these issues is surprisingly scarce. Japan was the first country in the world to see these problems surface in the late 1990s, but without any serious action, the birth rate in Japan continues to decline. If the current pace of decline continues, the birth rate in Japan will drop to zero in 18 years (birth rate data can be found here). Elon Musk has expressed concern about this several times, even predicting that "Japan will disappear." A birth rate of zero is a critical situation that threatens the very survival of a nation. However, the current situation is that there is virtually no effort being made to address this problem. The Japanese government established the Child and Family Agency in 2023, but no action has been seen, and there are criticisms that it would be better to dismantle the agency and distribute 10 million yen to newborns. However, there are reasons for the government's missteps. First of all, there are few researchers studying this problem, and the causes have not even been identified. Masahiro Yamada, who coined terms such as "parasite single" and "marriage hunting," specializes in family issues, not declining birth rates or unmarried status. In particular, the number of researchers studying sexless relationships is almost zero.
To understand the current state of these problems, let's first explain how Westerners became aware of them. Initially, Westerners perceived Japan's sexlessness as a unique issue specific to Japan. Westerners had a stereotype of Japanese people as perverted otaku, and they linked their sexlessness to the Japanese people's perverted tendencies. This is from a 2013 BBC interview, and the title reflects the Westerner's stance.
Meanwhile, an article published in the British newspaper The Guardian in 2013 sparked controversy.
This article, which attempted to dismiss the issue as "Japanese people are perverts" as had been the case up until then, sparked a debate with some people saying "That's right" and others saying "No, that's not true."
”it’s a strange thing that can only happen in Japan."
"Why Japanese Women Are Choosing Their Careers Over Having Sex " Huffington Post
”This is the typical weird and wacky Japan story that overseas editors seem to gobble up and encourage"
Japan's 'sex drought' trades on empty stereotypes: William Pesek
The Isla Vista shooting that occurred the following year in 2014 was what finally settled this debate. Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old California man of half white and half Asian descent, blamed society for the fact that women had ignored him and planned revenge. He wrote a lengthy manifesto and video confession before randomly killing six people and then committing suicide.
This incident sent shock waves through Americans, who had laughed off the issue of sexless and singleness as a problem limited to Japan. It not only brought the existence of incels to the nation's attention, but also led to Americans realizing that the incel problem is not just someone else's problem, but a problem facing Americans themselves. Kate Julian, a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine, became interested in the issue and began her own investigation, publishing the results in an article. The article was picked up by major media outlets, and helped establish the term "sex recession." In this lengthy 39-page article, the author introduces each of the causes of sexlessness he heard during his research.
”Over the course of many conversations with sex researchers,
psychologists, economists, sociologists, therapists, sex educators, and
young adults, I heard many other theories about what I have come to think
of as the sex recession. I was told it might be a consequence of the hookup
culture, of crushing economic pressures, of surging anxiety rates, of
psychological frailty, of widespread antidepressant use, of streaming
television, of environmental estrogens leaked by plastics, of dropping
testosterone levels, of digital porn, of the vibrator’s golden age, of dating
apps, of option paralysis, of helicopter parents, of careerism, of
smartphones, of the news cycle, of information overload generally, of
sleep deprivation, of obesity. Name a modern blight, and someone,
somewhere, is ready to blame it for messing with the modern libido.”
"Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex?" 2018 The Atlantic
https://www.scribd.com/document/730461152/Young-People-Are-Having-Less-Sex-The-Atlantic (full article here)
The investigation into the cause began with Ms. Kate Julian's work, but so far no definitive conclusions have been reached. Also in 2018, there were movements to solve the problem in Japan, but the Japanese approach was not to investigate the cause, but rather a capitalist approach. For women suffering from sexless life, a new type of sex service for women emerged. While there had been some sexual services for women before such as male escorts, the services provided by male escorts were merely dates, and sexual satisfaction was not guaranteed. However, the newly emerged sex service for women positioned the sexual satisfaction of women as the central service. Since sexual satisfaction is provided, the men called "therapists" had to undergo thorough training in bed techniques before starting work. This pre-training is the crucial difference from the previous male escorts. The sex service for women became a hidden hit in the business world of Japan, and the founder who made a fortune in a short period of time was arrested in 2024 for tax evasion of 300 million yen(2 million USD).
So, that's the situation in Japan and the United States regarding the issues of unmarried people, low birth rates, and sexlessness. Despite these problems emerging in Japan ahead of the rest of the world, there are virtually no researchers dedicated to this issue, the causes remain unknown, and naturally, no solutions have been established. It is likely that the situation is not much different in the United States, which recognized these problems later than Japan.
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