Sexless couples are at a record high in Japan as the country ranks the lowest for sex life satisfaction. Which raises the question: Why is Japan shying away from sex?
Japan’s sex life ranks lowest
Japanese men and women are the least satisfied with their sex lives, according to We-Vibe, a Canadian vibrator brand. Only 35% of Japanese have fulfilling sex lives, the lowest among the eleven countries that We-Vibe surveyed.
| Country | Satisfaction |
| Spain | 58% |
| France | 53% |
| Singapore | 46% |
| Switzerland | 45% |
| Hong Kong | 44% |
| World average | 43% |
| United States | 43% |
| Germany | 43% |
| Australia | 38% |
| Canada | 38% |
| United Kingdom | 37% |
| Japan | 35% |
Women reported higher satisfaction levels on average at 46% compared to men at 41%.
We-Vibe is owned by the “sexual happiness company” Lovehoney Group (LHG), founded in 2021 and headquartered in Bath, United Kingdom. It asked men and women in these eleven countries between ages 18 and 65 about how satisfied they were with their sex lives. 14,957 respondents answered an online questionnaire, whose answers yielded the results above.
The survey reinforces another one we covered in 2020 from Japanese sex toy manufacturer Tenga. In that survey, Japan was the only country whose respondents reported enjoying food more than sex. Japan also reported the lowest number of people who were highly satisfied with their sex lives, at 9%.
Sexlessness on the rise in Japan?
We-Vibe isn’t the only one sounding the sexless alarm. Japan is more sexless than ever, according to last week’s report by The Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA).
48.3% of married couples have sex zero times per month, the highest ever since JFPA began recording data on sexless couples in 2002. Sexlessness has been rising consistently, increasing by 16.4% in the past two decades.
Sexlessness among both married and unmarried couples is 49.2%, according to the same survey. 13.9% of all couples have sex only once a month.
24.3% of men blamed their partner’s lack of response for having little to no sex. Men shared other reasons, such as a change in sex life after childbirth (14.7%) and a lack of motivation (12.0%).
22.6% of women said they don’t have sex because it’s mendokusai (a hassle). The second most frequent reason among sexless women was fatigue from work (20.8%). (Which isn’t unexpected: we’ve reported in the past how working women in Japan also still end up doing most of the housework.)
JFPA collected the results above by sending the same survey to a random group of 3,000 men and women between 16 and 49 in September and October last year. They received 26.6% valid responses.
Or is it 64%?
JEX, a Japanese condom manufacturer, released its Japan Sex Survey 2024 last month. Their survey shows sexlessness accelerating at an alarming rate. The survey also purports to show that many young heterosexual men are losing all interest in women.
The research body in charge was JFPA, which surveyed 5,029 men and women last November at JEX’s request. Respondents were between the ages of 18 and 69.
64.2% of married respondents said that they and their partners are sexless, a steep increase from 2020 when that figure was 51.9%.
The study also found an apparent link between overseas academic background and lower levels of sexlessness. While only 12.9% of foreign university graduates were sexless, at least 53.4% of graduates from Japanese universities and institutes were sexless.
Aside from sexlessness between couples, the study also looked at virginity. A staggering 51.7% of men in their twenties are virgins in 2024, compared to 43.0% in 2020.
However, more women are losing their virginity, with only 37% having no sex history in their 20s. That’s an increase from 26.3% in 2020.
Sex, anxiety, and aging
One in every three people in Japan feel stressed about sex, according to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical. In a study last September that looked at 1,000 men and women between their twenties and sixties, aging was the top reason driving anxiety around sex.
Top reasons that make sex stressful
Aging: 20.4%
Mental fatigue: 17.4%
Lack of knowledge on how to have sex with no effort to learn: 26.1%
Giving up and taking no measures to improve: 25.8%
Professor Akira Tsujimura from Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital’s urology department says that Japan’s aging society is seeing an increase in erectile dysfunction (ED) unlike ever before. Experts like Tsujimura predict that nearly half of the male population suffers from ED.
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