Japan Not So Easy: Half the Country's Not Having Sex

Nearly half of the adult population in Japan is not having sex, a new study conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association reported.

For this study, which was done in September 2014, the researchers interviewed 3,000 participants between the ages of 16 and 49 about their sex lives. A total of 1,134 people provided valid responses.

They found that overall, 49.3 percent of the male participants did not have sex for a month. The rate for women participants that abstained from sex was 50.1 percent. The researchers noted that for both genders, the number of people who did not engage in sexual activity increased by nearly five percent in comparison to the numbers gathered during the 2012 survey.

In married couples, the rate of people who did not engage in sex over the past month was 44.6 percent. The rate for men was 36.2 percent and 50.3 percent for women.

When asked why they did not have sex, 21.3 percent of married men stated that they were too tired after work. 15.7 percent of married men stated that they were no longer interested in having sex after their wives had given birth. In women, 23.8 percent described sex as "bothersome" while 17.8 percent stated that they were too fatigued after work to have sex.

The researchers calculated that 20 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 29 stated that they were not that interested in having sex. These men are known as "herbivores" in Japan.

The study's findings help explain Japan's declining birth rate over the years. According to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, if these trends continue, Japan's population by 2100 could fall to around 49.59 million, which would represent a more than 61 percent decline from the 2010 number. The population is currently around 126.6 million.

The government has been encouraging couples to have more children. These campaigns, so far, do not seem to be effective.