Japanese government data says nearly 4 in 10 Japanese men in their twenties and thirties have no sexual relations with the opposite sex and a quarter of single men in their thirties are actually virgins, and the blame for this is being laid on the profusion of anime, manga and games Japan is so blessed with.

The official data on middle-aged virgins is almost as frightening as some of the countermeasures – “White Hands”, an NPO hoping to devirginise some of these men, is holding nude sketch classes in the hopes of familiarising (just how unfamiliar they can be in the age of mass-pornography is some not touched upon) some of these men with the female form in the flesh as the first step in their remasculinisation.

Tellingly, its some of its participants cite the fiction of “natural” contact with the opposite sex the post-feminist world has so successfully used to create multiple generations of beta herbivores:

“In my case, there was no chance to become intimate with women. I had always thought such a chance would come naturally, but it never did – in the end, not once.”

The group’s organisers unsurprisingly blame anime and manga for this sorry state of affairs:

“Japanese society is overflowing with diversions other than romance and sex, such as anime, manga and games. Pain and anguish are not dealt with, so the solace of sex and romance is not needed. The illusion of the perfect relationship and the fear of failure which so peculiarly pervades Japanese society has a severe impact, and this is all linked to the dearth of sexual relationships here, and of course the low birth rate.”

Such reports do also mention economic stagnation and the impracticality of marrying or keeping a family when incomes are frequently declining – and with the cost-performance and verisimilitude of virtual love increasingly radically outstripping the costs of actual interactions with the opposite sex for so many Japanese men, the situation seems unlikely to be resolved with a few nude sketches.