Tokyo: The young generation has been losing interest in conventional relationships, sex and dating due to excess work load and pressure, a study said. Termed as “celibacy syndrome”, this effect might hamper birth rates, the study say.
The number of single people has reached a record high. A survey in 2011 found that 61% of unmarried men and 49% of women aged 18-34 were not in any kind of romantic relationship, a rise of almost 10% from five years earlier in Japan.
Another study found that a third of people under 30 had never dated at all. A survey earlier this year by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA) found that 45% of women aged 16-24 “were not interested in or despised sexual contact”. More than a quarter of men felt the same way.
Marriage has become a minefield of unattractive choices. Men have become less career-driven, and less solvent, as lifetime job security has waned. Women have become more independent and ambitious. Yet conservative attitudes in the home and workplace persist. Cohabiting or unmarried parenthood is still unusual, dogged by bureaucratic disapproval.
Lacking long-term shared goals, many are turning to easy or instant gratification, in the form of casual sex, short-term trysts and the usual technological suspects: online porn, virtual-reality “girlfriends”, anime cartoons. Or else they’re opting out altogether and replacing love and sex with other urban pastimes.
Agencies
