Kohei Hara "This video game is much better than sex"

Why have sex when you can manage a virtual candy store in a video game? That’s the question millions of Japanese young people are asking themselves, as they increasingly choose to stay single and not have sex. Here are 11 things we learned from the Guardian’s investigation of Japan’s “celibacy syndrome.”

1) In Japan, a third of people under 30 have never dated anyone ever.

2) 45 percent of women say they have no interest in sex or even “despise” it, and over 25 percent of men feel the same way.

3) In 2012, more adult diapers were sold in Japan than baby diapers (which means the birth rate is plummeting.)

4) 61 percent of men and 49 percent of women under 35 are not getting any (i.e., were in no kind of romantic relationship).

5) 90 percent of young women say staying single is better than what they think marriage would be like.

6) The phrase “grass eating man” refers to a straight guy who doesn’t care about sex or relationships. Let’s hope this one doesn’t catch on.

7) Individually-wrapped disposable underwear is sold in convenience stores.

8) Women in their early 20s have a 25 percent chance of never marrying, and a 40 percent chance of never having a kid

9) Kunio Kitamura, the head of the Japanese Family Planning Association and the guy who advises the government on family matters, said, “Sexual drive comes from males,” and “females do not experience the same levels of desire.”

10) People are too busy playing video games to get any. One 30-year old virgin said he only gets turned on when he watches female robots on a video game. Another young woman said she doesn’t date because she’s spent the last two years playing a video game in which she manages a virtual candy store.

With all our millennial whining about casual hookups and online dating, we might not have it so bad.

[The Guardian]