64% of Japanese Couples Are 'Sexless'... Young Men Move Beyond Herbivore to Abstinent Men

Family Planning Association Survey on Sexual Behavior
"52% of Young Men Have No Sexual Experience"

A survey in Japan revealed that more than six out of ten married couples, so-called 'sexless couples,' do not have sexual intercourse with their spouses. Additionally, among men aged 20 and under, the proportion of those who do not feel the need for sexual intercourse approaches 37%, indicating a declining interest in sexual activity among the younger generation.

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On the 7th, Sankei Shimbun reported this citing the results of a survey conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association last November, which investigated the sexual lives and other conditions of 5,029 men and women aged 18 to 69 across Japan via the internet.

In this survey, among respondents with spouses, 64.2% answered that they had not had sexual intercourse with their spouse for more than one month. This figure is 12.3 percentage points higher than the 51.9% recorded in the previous survey conducted in 2020. Kunio Kitamura, chairman of the Japan Family Planning Association, which conducted the survey, said, "The rise in the rate of sexlessness among married people shows no signs of slowing."

The proportion of respondents who answered that they had 'no sexual experience,' regardless of marital status, also increased compared to the previous survey. For men, it rose from 13.3% to 19.2%, and for women, from 9.4% to 16.5%. Notably, among men in their 20s, the rate of those without sexual experience reached 51.7%, exceeding half, while 37.0% of women in their 20s reported having no sexual experience.

This survey also drew attention by confirming that young men’s desire to have sexual intercourse has significantly decreased. While over 85% of men in their 30s to 60s responded 'yes' to the question of whether they want to have sexual intercourse, only 63.4% of men in their teens and 20s answered affirmatively, showing a significant difference compared to other age groups.

As a result, there is an interpretation that young Japanese men are becoming not just 'soshoku-dan (草食男, herbivore men)' but 'zesshoku-dan (絶食男, fasting men).' 'Soshoku-dan' refers to men who are passive about dating and sex, while 'zesshoku-dan' goes further to describe men who do not engage in dating at all.

Chairman Kitamura analyzed, "Among young men, polarization is progressing between those interested in sexual life and those who are not. In the modern era, where sexual content is easily accessible through videos and other media, it may be that more young people find actual human contact bothersome."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.