50% of Japanese Couples seem to be sexless in their relationship

It seems that every other week or so, we stumble upon yet another news story about sexlessness in Japan. And as to be expected, we not got the latest.

As always, these statements are based on surveys which is something we should consider here. First published in the Japan Times, this latest story states that nearly half of married couples don’t have sex.

But what is our definition of sexless you may ask yourself?

Here, the criteria is sexual activity once a month. That’s a reasonable line in the sand, we suppose, though with how long people work in Japan and the challenges that come with having children, a month is not such a too long time. Add in other factors more specific to Japan, the custom of sleeping as a family together in a room on futons laid out next to each other or the thinness of walls in apartments, it’s arguably necessary to avoid being caught by other members of your family which could lead to a huge embarrassment.

The findings come from a Japan Family Planning Association survey, which came out at the end of last week. The survey was held with a random sample of 3000 men and women aged between 16 and 49, though a mere 26.6% of the target sample responded.

Most male respondents gave the reason that chimes true if you have ever scanned Reddit forums where husbands gripe about their wives, the wife sadly does not respond to their advances, for whatever reason there may be.

For women, the main reason seems to be more practical as intimacy seems to be too much of a hassle to them. Other common reasons women gave were work fatigue and the changes rendered to their body by pregnancy or giving birth.

There is a clear gender divide here, with the guys clearly keen on maintaining intimacy but a significant minority of women not enthusiastic at all.

Easier to write on a blog than in practice, indeed, but we’ve seen married friends retreat into bitter silences about intimacy, and it is one of the factors that leads to divorce, though ironically, the kids who are indirectly responsible for the sexlessness are also often directly the reason that unhappy couples may stay stubbornly together.

There have been a lot of these “sexless Japan” stories and surveys over the years from Japan over the years and the results of the survey showed that 48.3% of married couples were “sexless,” up 1.1 percentage point from the previous survey conducted in 2016. The rate of sexless couples has continued to increase year by year since 2004, when it was 31.9%.

If that’s true, we should be worried, since the population of Japan is declining, fewer people are marrying, and fewer children are being born.

Director of the Japan Family Planning Association, a physician who oversaw the survey, warned, “It is definitely possible that this trend toward sexlessness will continue in the future.”

What do you think about this? Is it possible that porn and social media have a direct impact on this and how do you think is the situation on this where you are living?

We love to hear your thoughts!