> The definition of “sexless” set in 1994 by the Japan Society of Sexual Science, a professional organization that deals with all aspects of human reproduction, states that this is a condition occurring when someone has had “no sexual contact for a month or more.” Sexual contact itself includes a host of things, such as “kissing, oral sex, petting and sleeping together naked.”

Geez, I’ve been taking a break from women this past year but after reading this it hits kinda hard. According to this I’ve been sexless for a loooong time.

Is not having sex for a month really that uncommon?

I don't think it's uncommon, but either way, does it matter? I've taken some breaks too. I think it's important to find ways to be happy by yourself from time to time, and to learn to deal with loneliness. Hopefully go back to dating later with a healthier attitude (ie: wait for the right person, instead of just getting with someone because of loneliness).

Here are some articles I found with stats about frequency among adults:

http://www.issm.info/sexual-health-qa/what-is-the-normal-fre...

https://vitals.lifehacker.com/here-s-how-much-sex-everybody-...

About 30% of single males have not had sex in six months. It's slightly less for women, btw, 25% iirc. Rates are higher among the educated. Don't ask me how I know that.

Stats are probably similar for those who have been married more than a few years.

according to the figure I saw for married men it's about 10% and married women, oddly, 5%.

Could this be an error in self reporting or that women are more likely to cheat in marriages?

For a single guy I would think it's not uncommon. Though, I do find it bizarre that a large number of young adults would be uninterested in sex.

This is happening in the US as well with young people, especially teens. The US is going to see the same economic stagflation as Japan due to reduced labor supply.

I wonder if the article is right about the internet being to blame for it. It's true that it's become ridiculously easy in the past few years to get access to so much content for free. I think the fragmentation of our culture might be partially to blame too. Everyone gets their own feed of news articles, videos and music completely customized to their own tastes, so much so that we end up having less and less shared culture with the people we see everyday. One thing is for sure: virtual reality probably isn't going to help.

My conclusion is that humans are poorly adapted to modern life. The specific mechanism is, I think, that our extensive media diets are scrambling the circuits that kick the reproductive mechanisms into gear. IE, we see the curated versions of other people’s lives on our Facebook feed and it makes us feel like we aren’t established enough to be able to properly support a family. Or we watch too much porn and then we lack the drive to do all the stuff required to actually attract a mate.

That might play a role, but it also seems clear that modern society somewhat devalues "settling down" and having children. Portrays that as boring and lame. I'm not looking to have children, but I'm honestly finding it difficult to find people who even want a committed relationship at the moment. A lot of people are only focused on short-term fun. I would guess that this is in large part a product of our modern capitalistic society being so successful. A strong family unit is no longer necessary for survival.

But I would blame the not wanting committed relationships or a family thing on media consumption as well.

Settling down and starting a family is a boring, long term endeavor that doesn’t really play well in most media formats. Therefore it just doesn’t get any space. The protagonists of basically every TV show do not have families. And that’s because it wouldn’t be feasible for them to do all the stuff that makes the plot interesting if they were tied down by a family. And people are getting cues about how their personal story arc should play out from the media they consume.

But you’re right that capitalism is excellent at providing the means to life a life of self involved, hedonistic excess.

I think Japan's debt situation and the unstable nature of a lot of young people's careers (gigs, temp jobs, etc.) are scaring off family formation. Which is the wrong response for the economy, but the right response for the person.

The real thing to blame is Consumerism. It rules our sense of aesthetic, results in feelings like "men are dirty and revolting", and bind the right to have sex with wealth.

i'd say culture is responsible for some of it, but there's probably a biological cause for the rest.

the chemical environment people grow up in today is different from the one 10 years ago, or 30 years ago, etc.

we may very be improving in some dimensions -- like removing lead -- while getting far worse in others (plastic and anti-androgens).

The comment above is getting downvotes, but it isn't implausible. The western world has seen declines in sperm counts, testosterone, and age of menarche.

We don't know the cause, but environmental hormonal causes are one hypothesis.

Here's one aspect: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testicular_dysgenesis_syndro...

It's easy to see how lower testosterone would lead to less sex. It is very unlikely to be the only cause, but it likely has some impact.

Regarding two major concerns with future economies: reduced labor supply and unemployment due to automation, wouldn’t they help balance each other out, at least in advanced countries?

Don't worry. India can supply as much labor as you need

Until those jobs are automated away.

With the rise of nationalism and ending of large scale migrations the Governments of developed nations will either need to do more to encourage couples to build a family if they want to reverse this trend or they can chalk this up as a net positive since the plant can’t continue to sustain a growing human population.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a low birth rate -- except that modern economies seem to be massive pyramid schemes that require a never-ending stream of fresh blood to remain solvent. It's not like the Japanese are at risk of going extinct; once the population falls below a certain threshold, the birth rate will start rising again. They'll survive. But what may not survive is the economic system that borrows against its own future -- a system that is only sustainable if growth continues, unabated, forever.

You’re presuming no external existential threat. The Chinese have a large, but aging population. They could move into a weakened Japan within 20 years to take their infrastructure.

Modern war doesn't work that way. In fact, today, 'war' doesn't actually work at all.

What China wants is for it's hegemony to be recognized.

Why invade Japan and risk it being highly unpopular at home; being sanctioned by every major developed economy; militarization of it's neighbourhood, etc. etc. (on top of actually being unable to actually conquer Japan)

Within 20 years, it could be well within the position of dictating Japan's foreign, or even some domestic, polices to such a degree to have it essentially as a vassal state. Japan perhaps willingly chooses to make certain concessions in return for favourable treatment for China - say if the two countries considered closer trade relations at one point.

There's also diplomatic & soft power. An aging Japan turning to immigration which de facto will largely result in an influx of Chinese (already the largest foreign minority in Japan). These chinese immigrants over time have more power within Japanese policy.

If China manages to launch it's own cultural industries to the degree of S. Korea's or Japan's, that would make room for more Chinese influence.

But in the end it works both ways. Young Chinese imitate certain aspects of Japanese culture as well. It doesn't really need to end in war or even aggression for both countries to slowly learn to have a meaningful relationship with each other.

Evolution will solve this problem.

This is from 6 years ago; curious if the trend continued.

Sex aversion continues to rise:

“The association released its newest survey for 2014 a few months ago. In that survey, 65.8 percent of women 16-19 were not interested in sex or felt an aversion to it, and 39.2 percent of women 20-24 felt the same way.”

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/23/...

these numbers are skyrocketing; within 10 years (should the trend reach its logical conclusion, which i doubt that it will), there will be zero japanese interested in sex.

Fertility rate is up slightly for what it's worth:

https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

Self-reporting about sexual activity might not be the most accurate. What we can conclude: its become more popular to claim to have an aversion to sex.