An interesting old article about the japanese society. While
doing a sociology elective project i chanced upon this. This
actually meant to be an informative topic (wanted to put in
ChitChat) but i rekoned FireIce would shift it in Bar anyway
because of the catchy topic haha... And also, some unique
SGforumers would 'siang wai wai'.
My question to all. Would Singapore one day become like this? We
are always chasing material aspects of life and neglect our other
half.
I hope someone never post this before or it is forgotten.
hahaha...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/04/japan.justinmccurry
Lustless matches put country on brink of demographic
disaster
Like many Japanese women, Junko waited until her early 30s to
get married. When she and her fiance, an employee of a well-known
firm, decided to tie the knot, she set her sights on making a home,
putting away some money and starting a family.
Fifteen years later, Junko and her husband are childless. It is
not that they cannot have children; it is just that they have never
had sex.
The sexless marriage is one of several reasons why experts fear
Japan is on the verge of a demographic disaster.
In 2003 Japan's birthrate hit a record low of 1.29 - the average
number of times a woman gives birth during her lifetime - one of
the lowest rates in the world, according to the cabinet office. The
population will peak next year at about 128 million, then decline
to just over 100 million by 2050.
The 200 women a year who seek help at a clinic in the Tokyo
suburbs have not had sex with their husbands in up to 20 years, and
some never, according to Kim Myong-gan, who runs the clinic.
"The women who come to see me love their husbands and aren't
looking for a divorce," he told the Guardian. "The problem is that
their husbands lose interest in sex or don't want sex from the
start. Many men think of their wives as substitute mothers, not as
women with emotional and sexual needs."
Mr Kim's short-term solution is unconventional. After an initial
20,000 yen (£100) counselling session, he produces photographs of
45 men, mostly professionals in their 40s, with whom the women are
invited to go on dates and then, in almost all cases, arrange
regular assignations in hotel rooms.
Mr Kim dismissed charges that his service was little more than a
male prostitution ring. "The men volunteer and pay half the hotel
and restaurant bills, so legally there is absolutely nothing wrong
with it," he said.
He had rescued hundreds of women from despair, he said, but his
"sex volunteers" would do nothing to cure the malaise that afflicts
the institution of marriage in Japan.
The number of married couples is in rapid decline. In 2000
almost 70% of men and 54% of women between 25 and 29 were
unmarried. That bodes ill for the birthrate, as conservative
Japanese society frowns upon having children outside marriage.
A survey of 600 women found that 26% had not had sex with their
husbands in the past year.
"We are sort of room-mates rather than a married couple," one
31-year-old man, who had not had sex with his wife for two years,
told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
The government has introduced several measures to lift the
birthrate. Fathers will be encouraged to take more than the 47% of
annual paid leave they currently use, and their employers will be
told to provide more opportunities for them to stay at home with
their children.
Local authorities, meanwhile, are devising novel ways to
increase fertility. In the town of Yamatsuri women will receive 1m
yen if they have a third child, and in Ishikawa prefecture families
with three children will get discounts at shops and
restaurants.
The absence of children in so many homes is having an impact.
Fun parks are closing and there are signs that the "exam hell"
teenagers go through to secure places at top schools and
universities is less of an ordeal because the competition is less
fierce.
The divorce rate has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, with
more women blaming their sexually inactive, as opposed to sexually
errant, husbands for break-ups.
"The men love their companies; they live for work," Mr Kim said.
"Men don't even think it is a problem if they don't have sex with
their wives. They have pornography and the sex industry to take
care of their needs, but their wives have nowhere to go. They just
suffer in silence."
