Japan: Ratios of single men, women reach record high

[RandySF]

Sixty-one percent of unmarried men aged between 18 and 34 have no girlfriend and 50 percent of women in this group have no boyfriend—and many of them don’t care, a survey showed.

The percentages of single men and women were both record highs, according to the 14th National Fertility Survey conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in June last year.

Similar surveys conducted at roughly five-year intervals showed the proportions of respondents without a boyfriend or girlfriend have been increasing since 1987, when the ratios stood at 49 percent for men and 40 percent for women.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201111270043a

[phasma ex machina]

1. IIRC all the men are holding out for a "10" while all the women are holding out for a billionaire.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Japanese men aren't holding out for a "10"

In the Kanto area, including Tokyo, at least, the young single women like to parade around with the latest expensive designer clothes and accessories and spend an inordinate amount of time engrossed in their cell phones. It's no wonder why so many Japanese men don't seem to be interested in getting a girlfriend.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Your misinterpeting Asian Culture

Its not proper to get married if you can't afford to support a family.

The fact "Consumerism" has had a profound effect on Japanese and Asia people as a whole doesn't dismiss the fact. Moving in with Mom and Dad to raise your family and shitting pancakes for some plumber is not that appealing to any woman much less Japanese women.

As Tokoyo grew and real estate prices rose to "Unobtainium Prices" rural Japanese families existed with the man leaving home on Monday and not returning from Tokoyo until Friday or Saturday to be with his family. When these guys finally started to retire and return home for good then the wives had to deal with a "Full Time Husband" and the divorce rate shot through the roof.

No I equate this as Consumerism, Rapid Growth, and Corporatism breaking down their society

[Art_from_Ark]

7. I've lived in Asian culture for half my life

Specifically, Japanese culture.

You are right that it is looked down upon for men to get married in Japan if they cannot support a family-- meaning, the purpose of marriage in Japan is still mainly to start a family. The idea of starting a family is becoming less and less appealing to both sexes, for a multitude of reasons.

However, I think you are overestimating the impact of "dekasegi", that is, leaving rural areas to work for long periods in large cities. That was mainly the result of huge income disparities between urban and rural areas which have been mitigated to a great extent today. Most male office workers today return to their own home every night. The real estate boom in Tokyo forced people into the suburbs, but the vast majority of office workers in Tokyo still live within a 60-90 minute commute of their jobs.

Moving in with Mom and Dad after marriage is mostly a rural phenomenon. Urban and suburban couples usually live in their own housing. And even in rural areas, it is not uncommon for Mom and Dad to build a separate house if the couple ends up moving in.

Consumerism does play a role, as I alluded to. The phenomenon of young women parading around in expensive designer clothes and accessories, and spending all of their public time, it seems, engrossed in their cell phones, is not appealing to young men.

One more thing-- what, exactly, is "shitting pancakes for some plumber" supposed to mean? :shrug:

[RandySF]

6. Women got tired of Japanese family life.

Marriage is considered a hardship for women whose mostly absentee husbands depend on them for everything. Then they have to take care of the kids who spend their entire school-age life at school, cram schools or in their room studying.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. I get the impression that most Japanese women would rather have absentee husbands

as long the income keeps coming in.

[seabeyond]

13. ah, well, per you, the whole phenomenon is the fault of women.

i guess that always works for some.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. And you always seem to blame the man

Always.

Come to Japan and see for yourself, if you doubt me.

[seabeyond]

17. not true. and still, you stand that really, it is about the women. amazing. nt

[Selatius]

2. Well, on the other hand, it means they're witnessing population decline instead of growth.

7,000,000,000 is a drain on earth as it is.

[AnnieBW]

5. They're all holding out for Anime Girls

With big eyes, big boobs, and sailor suits. :D

[ellisonz]

9. Japanese society needs to find a new purpose - and consumerism isn't it.

Anomie is a term meaning "without Law" to describe a lack of social norms; normlessness". It describes the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties, with fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.<1> It was popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide (1897). Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau. Durkheim never uses the term normlessness; rather, he describes anomie as "a rule that is a lack of rule," "derangement," and "an insatiable will."<2>

For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards, or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations. This is a nurtured condition:

Anomie in common parlance is thought to mean something like "at loose ends". The Oxford English Dictionary lists a range of definitions, beginning with a disregard of divine law, through the 19th and 20th century sociological terms meaning an absence of accepted social standards or values. Most sociologists associate the term with Durkheim, who used the concept to speak of the ways in which an individual's actions are matched, or integrated, with a system of social norms and practices ... Durkheim also formally posited anomie as a mismatch, not simply as the absence of norms. Thus, a society with too much rigidity and little individual discretion could also produce a kind of anomie, a mismatch between individual circumstances and larger social mores. Thus, fatalistic suicide arises when a person is too rule-governed, when there is ... no free horizon of expectation.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anomie

Also, not everyone needs to have kids!!!

:hide:

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. What explains the disparity?

Given that there are slightly more women than men, either
a) the lucky 39% of men have multiple girlfriends.
b) the boyfriends of some significant proportion of the lucky 50% of women are either married or over 34.
c) there is a difference of opinion between 11% of women and those they ID as their boyfriend.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. A lot of wealthy married men have girlfriends

And yes, the boyfriends of a lot of the women are over 34. It seems that a lot of urban Japanese women don't show any interest in boyfriends until their biological clock starts ticking, usually in their early thirties, and they often look for someone who is a few years older.

[RandySF]

12. Reminds me of something that happened 12 years ago.

I knew a Chinese lady who tried to introduce me to her 19 year-old niece. I was 28 at the time!!!

[seabeyond]

14. Sexless in Japan

Well, next to nothing. The conclusion arises from the magazine’s survey of 1,000 single and married men in their 30s. What’s their sex life like? How often do they do it, with how many partners, with what degree of eagerness? The two most startling statistics among the findings, while by no means the whole story, are at least sadly suggestive: (1) one-third of Spa!’s unmarried respondents (32.7%, to be precise) reported having no sex at all in 2009; (2) one-quarter of the single respondents (24.3%) have never in their lives had a sexual experience.

Those with roots in the more sexually charged past will find their hearts sinking to learn that only 16.7% of married thirty-something couples, and 11.3% of singles, enjoy sexual relations once a week. For two to three times a month the figures are 28.7% and 18.7%, respectively; for two to three times a week, 8% and 7.3%; for once every six months, 10% and 7.3%.

Of course, frequency is not the ultimate measure of quality (though the thought occurs that if it were better, it might be more frequent). Nor is the average amount of time taken up by each sexual encounter a firm gauge. But it cannot be totally meaningless if, as Spa! reports, the average amount of time involved has been shrinking year by year since 2000—from 58.6 minutes, including foreplay and afterplay, to 35.4 minutes now.

Infidelity, the traditional fly in the ointment of marital bliss, is no longer what it used to be either. Married men have settled down to a remarkable degree, 93% of them claiming the wife as the overwhelmingly favored sexual partner and only 6.3% seeking fulfillment elsewhere. As for singles, the percentage claiming a steady girlfriend is 42%—versus 42.7% with no sexual partner.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/sexless-in-japan

i read a study this year, i cannot find, stating 43% of male 19-34 thinks sex is icky. 58% women same age range.

might be an issue

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Spa! is the Japanese equivalent of Penthouse

So read what you want into their poll.

[seabeyond]

19. post 18. i have it in the wrong place and cause i have links from cnn, reuters, npr

i am not going to copy and paste to this post. heads up

[seabeyond]

18. cnn? reuter? npr?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120696816

The sensitive New Age man has finally arrived in the land of the salaryman. But there is a catch — a particularly important one in Japan, where the declining birthrate has caused alarm: The new Japanese man doesn't appear to be interested in women or sex.

Multiple recent surveys suggest that about 60 percent of young Japanese men — in their 20s and early 30s — identify themselves as herbivores. Their Sex and the City is a television show called Otomen, or Girly Guys. The lead character is a martial arts expert, the manliest guy in the whole school. But his secret passions include sewing, baking and crocheting clothes for his stuffed animals.

Japan's top expert on herbivores, Maki Fukasawa, believes they were born from the lost decade of economic stagnation. She christened the tribe in 2006 and recently wrote a book called The Herbivore Generation, which breaks herbivores down into 23 distinct subcategories. She argues that the herbivores are rebelling against the salaryman generation of their fathers, consciously turning away from the macho mores and conspicuous consumption of that era.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2009/06/the_herbivores_dilemma.html

estimates that 60 percent of men in their early 20s and at least 42 percent of men aged 23 to 34 consider themselves grass-eating men. Partner Agent, a Japanese dating agency, found in a survey that 61 percent of unmarried men in their 30s identified themselves as herbivores. Of the 1,000 single men in their 20s and 30s polled by Lifenet, a Japanese life-insurance company, 75 percent described themselves as grass-eating men.

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

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/07/27/us-japan-herbivores-idUSTRE56Q0C220090727