Japanese young men not as interested in sex

[FLPanhandle]

According to the survey of 800 people who turned 20 years old this year, 83.7 percent of Japanese males said they were not dating anyone, while 49.3 percent said they had never had any girlfriends.

More surprising was the news that in a separate survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare published by the Japan Family Planning Association that 36.1 percent of Japanese males, aged 16 to 19, had no interest in sex whatsoever -- up from a 2008 record of 17.5 percent.

“A comparison of the 2008 and 2010 findings show that men indeed have become ‘herbivores,'" said Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association, on NHK. "The findings seem to reflect the increasing shallowness of human relations in today’s busy society.”

Japan's birth rate stands at 1.21 per family, far below the rate of 2.08 babies that is required for a stable population.

As of March 2009, Japan's total population stood at just over 127 million, but that figure is projected to decline to 95 million by 2050. And if more drastic measures fail to encourage people to have sex - and hence children - then there will be a mere 47.7 million Japanese at the turn of the next century.

According to the survey of 671 men and 869 women, issued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 35.1 per cent of men aged 16 to 19 said they are not interested in or averse to sex, more than double the 17.5 per cent of men in the previous study in 2008.

"Obviously, the most important reason for Japan's declining birth rate is that people are not having sex," Dr. Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association, told The Daily Telegraph.

"Combined with the rising number of elderly people, this population imbalance is a major problem," he said.

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/life/no-sex-japanese-teens-boys-increasingly-show-no-interest-521163


Japan's 'herbivore men' -- less interested in sex, money

They are young, earn little and spend little, and take a keen interest in fashion and personal appearance -- meet the "herbivore men" of Japan.

Author and pop culture columnist Maki Fukasawa coined the term in 2006 in a series of articles on marketing to a younger generation of Japanese men. She used it to describe some men who she said were changing the country's ideas about just what is -- and isn't -- masculine.

"In Japan, sex is translated as 'relationship in flesh,'" she said, "so I named those boys 'herbivorous boys' since they are not interested in flesh."

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-05/world/japan.herbivore.men_1_japanese-men-men-and-women-girlfriend?_s=PM:WORLD


Harbinger of things to come elsewhere? Anything to slow the human population is good I guess.