TOKYO, March 15, 2007

Sex: What The Japanese Aren't Doing

Survey: Lack Of Sex — Nearly 40 Percent Haven't Had It In A Month — Is Behind Plunging Birth Rate

  • A billboard advertises a brothel in Tokyo. A new survey shows Japanese men and women ages 16-49 have not had sex for more than a month, contributing to the country's falling birth rate. Photo

    A billboard advertises a brothel in Tokyo. A new survey shows Japanese men and women ages 16-49 have not had sex for more than a month, contributing to the country's falling birth rate.  (AP / file)

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(AP)  The secret behind Japan's plunging birth rate?

A record 39.7 percent of Japanese citizens ages 16-to-49 have not had sex for more than a month — up 5 percentage points from two years ago — according to a survey published this week by the Japan Family Planning Association.

Among married couples, the rate was only slightly lower, at 34.6 percent.

"This is very bad news for the country's birth rate, and something the government needs to look into urgently," said Dr. Kunio Kitamura, the family planning association's director.

The survey comes amid concerns over Japan's faltering birth rate, which fell in 2005 to a record low of 1.26 births in an average woman's lifetime. The decline has stoked fears of impending tax revenue shortfalls and labor shortages.

"The situation is dismal," Kitamura said. "My research shows that if you don't have sex for a month, you probably won't for a year."

Kitamura partly blamed stress from busy working lives. A decline in physical communication skills in an increasingly Web-based society was also a factor, he said.

The association said it handed out survey forms to 2,713 randomly selected people and received responses from 636 men and 773 women in November 2006. It gave no margin of error. In a similar poll taken two years ago, 35 percent reported having no sex for a month.

Japan came last in a 29-country study of sexual satisfaction published by the University of Chicago last year, with a mere 25.7 percent of lovers expressing satisfaction in bed.

The country was also in last place among 41 nations in a 2005 poll by condom manufacturer Durex, with people having sex just 45 times a year compared to a global average of 103.


© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Add a Comment See all 17 Comments
by hypnotoad72 March 15, 2007 12:08 PM PDT
Maybe they're using condoms too effectively?

Either way, I'm not going to ask about their bedtime habits...

Many people with AIDS pretend to be disease-free too... or don't even know it. I know, maybe nobody's having *** anymore because they don't know what to do! :D

Or maybe they're being too intelligent or making an example for the rest of the world to notice and mimic? Last time I checked, the world's population is approaching 7 BILLION. Japan doesn't have the worst record on "number of miracles in existence", but there are other countries that could be doing better.
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by us_infidel March 15, 2007 12:48 PM PDT
If we could find out what they're doing and mimic it here, maybe the population of liberal democrats will decline! :)
Reply to this comment
by rright-2009 March 15, 2007 12:58 PM PDT
I'm keeping count of all the negative republican vs negative democrat articles on this site. So far, it almost 10:1 against republicans. No bias here.
Reply to this comment
by erasmus6 March 15, 2007 3:18 PM PDT
I have a question for the Americans. Why is it that no matter what the topic is, that it always comes down to the democrats, republicans etc...? You are OBSESSED!!! I don't think there has been a story yet that there isn't someone b-i-t-c-h-i-n' about the democrats, republicans etc. Get a grip!
Reply to this comment
by senoy-2009 March 15, 2007 3:46 PM PDT
Americans love winners and competition. That's why we care about Republican vs. Democrat. Half the time we don't even know for what they stand. We just love seeing one side win. It's great to see our favorite team winning. The dedicated liberals/conservatives stick with their team no matter what. The undecideds just like to be on the winner's side, so they switch every couple of years.
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by billpl-2009 March 15, 2007 4:46 PM PDT
couldn't have anything to do with the size of their pp's, could it?

...just wondering
Reply to this comment
by Syndicate March 15, 2007 5:50 PM PDT
How sad.
Reply to this comment
by cmp271 March 15, 2007 8:23 PM PDT
Maybe we need to send over some of our porn industry actors and actresses.

This is a country that sells condoms in machines on the street. And other stuff to go with it.
Reply to this comment
by agnim March 15, 2007 8:48 PM PDT
Good for the Japanese people in managing their mating and securing more dignity for their women.

At least one nation is not spreading ***-addiction and the warped behaviors that come with it.

Over here our women are becoming lost, and loose hoes; thus making them more disrespected by males.
Reply to this comment
by beehive21-2009 March 16, 2007 12:57 AM PDT
Japanese babes are cool ,I would'nt what one of the guys either.I'm going for the babes ,happy hunting .
Reply to this comment
by formrusmcsgt March 16, 2007 7:21 AM PDT
What would be interesting to see is WHY the Japanese have to a large degree are not engaging in ***.

Work demands, the choice of more Japanese women to remain single, social issues, a combination ....?
Reply to this comment
by golfkt March 16, 2007 8:39 AM PDT
Same Japanese women are beautiful...
I am headed to Japan to save them...if I die in my quest to save the Japanese women, at least I will have a smile on my face....
Reply to this comment
by bildooreilly March 16, 2007 11:30 AM PDT
You've obviously never been to Japan, it's probably the most sexually liberal country on the planet. Though very conservative in everyday life, the japanese are superfreaks and they don't hide it... I've never seen a pornography magazine vending machine out on the street before I went to Japan, public bathrooms, bars where you can go in and have *** with women on stage, it's a totally wacky place.


----------------------------
Good for the Japanese people in managing their mating and securing more dignity for their women.

At least one nation is not spreading ***-addiction and the warped behaviors that come with it.

Over here our women are becoming lost, and loose hoes; thus making them more disrespected by males.
Posted by Agnim at 08:48 PM : Mar 15, 2007
Reply to this comment
by middleman8 March 16, 2007 11:36 AM PDT
right on erasmus6:

it must be a carry over from north vs. south.
and the glorious civil war.
Reply to this comment
by ajaxrose1 March 16, 2007 2:10 PM PDT
It's so crowded they're probably glad to have any time alone they can get. They want to crowd even MORE people in? Sounds to me like they have a pretty good handle on the overpopulation problem.
Reply to this comment
by iceman_1960 March 17, 2007 7:39 AM PDT
"A record 39.7 percent of Japanese citizens ages 16-to-49 have not had *** for more than a month"

Too much time is being spent on the Internet. Obviously.

Perhaps the president should send Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani over there to explain to the Japanese why s*e*x is so much more fun than surfing the Web.
Reply to this comment
by iceman_1960 March 17, 2007 7:42 AM PDT
"My research shows that if you don't have *** for a month, you probably won't for a year."

And you wonder why Lindsay Lohan wound up in rehab ?
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