A couple days ago a newspaper in the U.K. published an article about the declining interest in sex by many Japanese people. It’s a theme I’ve written about before: among the many challenges Japan faces as a nation is an odd trend of both men and women being less interested in doing the “dance with no pantsu” than previous generations, deciding it’s mendokusai or “too much work.” There are many reasons for this trend, including the general stress of society and work, the sad reality of social awkwardness by both sexes, and “herbivorification,” a metrosexual-esque trend that has many Japanese men more interested in learning to cook and create beautiful bento lunches than make sexual conquests. Another factor is known as “parasite singles,” the result of having so many only children: because they know they’ll be able to inherit their parents’ house and land eventually, many young people enjoy lives of luxury, never getting serious about work or starting a family. It’s tempting to think that the rise in otaku culture might be partially responsible for the decreased interest in sex, but it’s just one of many distractions in everyday life in Japan. While it’s true there’s no shortage of games in which men get to interact and fall in love with beautiful moe girls, the reverse is true, too, and there are plenty of games in which women can explore incredible fictional love relationships. One popular mobile game for iOS called Kiss of Revenge, about a woman who approaches a man not for love for so she can kill him, to take revenge for something he did many years ago. As she goes to execute her plan, she realizes she’s fallen for him and must make a choice: love or revenge?
Japanese people are doing the horizontal mambo less often.
