Japan's Sexless Society: A Preview of the Future?
Is Japan's declining sex drive a failure or a preview of what's to come? This article explores how technology changed the value of sex.
Why Japan's low-sex trend isn't a failure, but a sign of things to come.
Last week, a spate of articles from publications like The Guardian, Washington Post, and Bloomberg dissected Japan's supposedly declining sex drive. As is typical when the foreign media focuses on Japan, two predictable camps emerged: the "Japan lovers" who dismissed the stories as sensationalist, and the "Japan bashers" who used the topic to mock Japan's supposed social dysfunction and economic irrelevance. The Washington Post even bizarrely accused Japan of failing in its "economic duty" to the rest of the world.
While critics of the media are right to point out the sensationalism, they are missing a more profound point: technology is fundamentally changing human behavior, particularly our relationship with sex. Growing up in the 1980s, sex was difficult, expensive, and a marker of status. It was a "90:10 rule" scenario, where a small minority of men had the most success with women. Sex was a reward for achievement, a social tool that disciplined men to strive for success.
The advent of the internet completely upended this dynamic. Suddenly, meeting "real" women became incredibly easy and cheap, shifting from expensive, nerve-wracking face-to-face encounters to a numbers game where you could contact a vast number of potential partners at no cost. At the same time, pornography became ubiquitous, instantly available to anyone with an internet connection.
These two major shifts—the ease of meeting people and the universal availability of porn—have had a predictable economic consequence. As every economist knows, when supply skyrockets, demand and value plummet. Sex has lost its scarcity and, with it, its link to status and self-worth. It's no longer a badge of honor or a symbol of sophistication. Instead, it has been downgraded to a form of entertainment, much like other feel-good substances we consume, such as sugar or alcohol.
This is a profound reversal, especially for men who were socialized in a world where sex was a prize to be earned. The Japanese, arguably, have a head start on the rest of the world in navigating this new reality. Surveys from a range of Japanese and international organizations consistently show that physical sex is becoming less common in Japan, a trend that is not surprising given its newfound lack of status. Japan has never had the same cultural obsession with romantic love as the West, making it easier for its people to transform sex into a "pure and clever form of entertainment."
Western countries, still burdened by romantic ideals and a new wave of puritanism, are in a different stage. Some are still in the "gluttony phase" of this sudden sexual availability, as evidenced by phenomena like "dogging" in the UK. But just as gluttony eventually leads to satiation and disgust, I believe the Western world will follow the Japanese model.
The Japanese aren't failing in their social or economic duty; they are simply pioneers. The shift from seeing sex as a powerful symbol of love and success to viewing it as a mere chemical experience—a harmless, optional diversion—may be the future for us all. In this new world, people will still have sex, but it won’t be that important anymore. And that’s a change we are all only beginning to understand.
