Why one in four Japanese millennials is a virgin
Japanese adults are increasingly eschewing sex in favour
The proportion of young Japanese adults who have not lost their virginity well into adulthood has increased in the past two decades, according to a new study which found a quarter of men aged 18 to 39 had not had sex.
Public health experts from the University of Tokyo found that sexual inexperience was on the rise for heterosexual men and women. The percentage of women aged 18 to 39 who had not had sex in 2015 was 24%, up from 21.7% in 1992. Men of the same age saw an increase from 20% to 25.8%, according to the report, published in BMC Public Health.
In comparison, “surveys from the UK, US and Australia suggest that rates of heterosexual inexperience are between 1% to 5% of adults in or around their 30s,” CNN said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Increasing sexual inexperience has long been a topic of national concern in Japan, but this report is the first to use nationally representative data that showed “the trend across different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds,” Peter Ueda, an author of the study published Monday, said.
Researchers cited “unstable job and income conditions among men as potential reasons behind the trend”, The Mainichi reports.
Indeed, the analysis, found that men’s likelihood to have had sex depended largely on their careers. Those with full-time employment who lived in cities of over a million people were more likely to have had sex.
“Men in the lowest income brackets were also 10 to 20 times more likely to be virgins than those that earned the most,” reported Forbes.
The same trend is not seen among women, which researchers believe can possibly be attributed to a higher proportion of “married women acting as full-time homemakers without a salary.”
Dr. Peter Ueda, the lead author of the study, told Newsweek that coverage of Japan’s flagging sex drive often focussed excessively on attention-grabbing phenomena like soshokukeidanshi - a subculture of so-called “herbivore men” who refrain from actively pursuing sexual relationships.
“While we cannot necessarily discount the effects of more exotic undercurrents, we can say that the not-nearly-as-provocative socioeconomic factors appear to be playing an important role in these trends,” he said.
The data used for this research defines heterosexual sexual experience as “vaginal intercourse between men and women” and did not account for LBGTQ individuals, because Japanese government surveys do not ask questions about same-sex experiences.
The survey also doesn’t include data for those who had some experience in the past but had become sexually inactive, an area researchers said they would like to investigate in future work.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'New arrivals are more than paying for themselves'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
6 stylish homes in Portland, Oregon
Feature Featuring a wall of windows in Collins View and a historic ballroom in Portland Heights
By The Week US Published
-
What's next for US interest rates?
The Explainer Stubborn inflation forestalls anticipated rate cuts
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Nigeria's worsening rate of maternal mortality
Under the radar Economic crisis is making hospitals unaffordable, with women increasingly not receiving the care they need
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The best health care systems in the world
In the spotlight Getting sick has never felt better
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and early
Speed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How happy is Finland really?
Today's Big Question Nordic nation tops global happiness survey for seventh year in a row with 'focus on contentment over joy'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
How Tehran became the world's nose job capital
Under the radar Iranian doctors raise alarm over low costs, weak regulation and online influence of 'Western beauty standards'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Africa's renewed battle against female genital mutilation
Under the radar Campaigners call for ban in Sierra Leone after deaths of three girls as coast-to-coast convoy prepares to depart
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Argentina: the therapy capital of the world
Under the radar Buenos Aires natives go hungry to pay for psychoanalysis, amid growing instability, anxiety – and societal acceptance
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Does declining birth rate spell doom for Britain?
Today's Big Question Ageing population puts pressure on welfare state, economy and fabric of society, while fertility is rising on populist agendas
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published