Carlos Solis
According to a recent study, Japanese people, particularly the younger generation, are engaging in sexual activity less frequently. Researchers found that nearly half of Japanese people reach age 25 without any sexual experience. Furthermore, about 10 percent celebrate their 30th birthday still being virgins.
Even those who have lost their virginity aren’t having sex very often. Several online surveys conducted in the 2020s revealed that around half of adults in Japan aged 20 to 49 had not had sex in the past year.
This trend has intensified over the last few decades, with rates of sexual inexperience and inactivity rising since the beginning of the millennium.
For comparison, in 2002 more than a third of Japanese people aged 20–24 reported a lack of sexual experience. Online surveys conducted closer to the 2020s indicated that this figure could rise to 60 percent among men and 51 percent among women in the same “hypersexual” age group.
What do scientists think about this?
The authors of a new study laid out their findings on the sexual attitudes and behaviors of Japanese people in The Journal of Sex Research.
The team analyzed 38 previous publications based on 43 surveys about sexual trends in Japan from 1974 to 2024 (primarily in a heterosexual context).
One observation the team made was the rising popularity of paid sex services in the country. In surveys conducted between 2008 and 2024, about 60 percent of men admitted to paying for sex.
The team also pointed out that young people in many high-income countries are having sex less often. But the drop is especially pronounced in Japan, where “sexual behavior is often described as a mysterious and contradictory mix of permissiveness and cautious expectations.”
The authors proposed several possible explanations for why Japanese people have cooled toward sex and intimate relationships. One reason is that many people simply do not desire intimate closeness. A 2020 survey found that about 30 percent of men and 40 percent of women aged 20 to 39 said they did not want to engage in sexual activity.
The authors suggested that unmarried adults in their 20s and 30s may be reluctant to spend time and money on people with whom they do not plan to build a future.
Meanwhile, for many modern Japanese women, marriage may feel unappealing because tradition still places the lion’s share of household responsibilities on them.
Japanese adults are also less constrained by traditional ideas of sexual innocence and moderation than, for example, adults in the United States or the United Kingdom.
One unique aspect of Japanese culture is alternative expressions of sexual desire — for instance, romantic or sexual attraction to fictional characters. A 2017 survey of students aged 16–22 found that 14–17 percent reported romantic feelings for a video game or anime character.
The researchers also believe that demanding daily schedules, long working hours, and exhausting commutes may make it harder for young people to form and maintain sexual relationships. In Japan, 30 percent of men and 15 percent of women work more than 50 hours a week.
Dr. Vanessa Apeya, a sexual health consultant at the British clinic network Barts Health NHS Trust, said in an interview with BBC Science Focus: “The study’s results indicate not so much a decrease in desire, but rather broader social and economic factors – long working hours, uncertainty about the future, changing gender roles, and a cultural emphasis on stability rather than partnership.”
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