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Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

theguardian.com

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Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#71

Post by emiliobumachar »

randomafrican wrote: post #50
emiliobumachar wrote: post #33

Is there hard evidence that this is bad? Resource depletion is among the highest risks to civilization. Seems straightforward that severe population decline should be desired, and voluntary refraining from reproduction should be welcome. (Please don't just extrapolate the trend till extinction. See http://xkcd.com/605/ . )

We're not Pandas. Ressource depletion is only a problem if our ressource consumption doesnt evolve. And it will evolve.

True enough, but such evolution, in the purely darwinian sense of the word, may involve a lot of war and atrocities.

In the worst case, it could bring the bloody end of civilization as we know it.

I agree that society and technology could evolve us through a much more desirable path. But the more time we can buy for that to happen, the better.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#72

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

creamyhorror wrote: post #51
usernew1817 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why does saying "married to a Japanese" sound so much more awkward then saying "married to an American/Canadian"

It's as simple as: - In standard English, "Japanese", "Chinese", etc. are now used only as adjectives and not nouns (although the noun usage used to be acceptable). So you can't correctly say "a Japanese came in" any more than you can say "a Swedish came in." http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/29887-grammar... - "The Japanese" remains valid as a way to refer to the people of that nation collectively. - "-…

One of the best internet comments I've ever read! Or maybe I just love etymology...

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#73

Post by veidr »

This is a stupid article, and young people in Japan have not stopped having sex.

What westerners might call 'casual sex' -- sex without the framework of a relationships that implies various other promieses/committments -- is normal, and also not likely to be spoken about frankly, especially to a reporter, and much less a British one.

Sometimes I'll witness a young woman asked about it at a social gathering (as people have a few drinks and speak more freely). "I don't have anybody... I can't remember the last time I slept with somebody," she might say. What she means is that she doesn't have a steady boyfriend, and thus it is certainly none of your business who she's fucking.

Or I will see a guy asked about it. "Well, romance is too complicated with all I've got going on... I've learned to live without it," he might say, with just the right amount of sheepishness. What he means is that he is seeking only sex that doesn't come with implied commitments and hassle.

These two people might very well end up leaving together.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#74

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

DanBC wrote: post #37
nl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm married to a Britisher (which is not used in Great Britan anyway) sounds similarly awkward. Married to an Englishman/Welshman/Irishman works, but is gender (and England/Wales/Ireland) specific. I'm married to a Scott works though. Not sure there is a general purpose word you can use to say "I'm married to someone from Britian".

"I'm married to a Briton". That sounds weird. ( https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... )

Disagree.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#75

Post by threeseed »

LeonidasXIV wrote: post #49
Osmium wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the concern is an ageing population rather than a shrinking one. Too many older people, no longer working, who need care or support and not enough younger people to provide it.

> Too many older people, no longer working, who need care or support and not enough younger people to provide it. But this will be a trend that autocorrects itself after some time, as less elder people will be there in the future. Also, the younger people if both working will create more prosperity than being married with one working and the other one staying at home. In the short term this sounds bad, but long term…

Sorry but you're completely wrong on this.

The problem is that people in general are living longer but the retirement age is staying roughly the same. So as time goes on you have a higher percentage of the people who aren't working but yet consuming public resources.

In the short term it is bad. In the long term it is devastating. Which is why every developed country is aggressively increasing the immigration rate to compensate. Well except for Japan.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#76

Post by bayesianhorse »

einhverfr wrote: post #22
m_mueller wrote: post #14

The subject is interesting, especially because I'm married to a Japanese - but man do I hate articles that go round and round like this one. Here, have a little bit of a sociological hypothesis - but let's not go too deep for your little brains shall we? Here, have a little bit of anecdotal evidence instead. Enough of that? Alright, let's start over again. [...] Oh I'm outa time, let's end the article now, kthxbye. I…

+1, especially on wishing there were more really good social sciences blogs out there covering issues like this. One of the big problems of course is the fact that while outsiders can see dynamics of and sometimes critique cultures, such critiques are necessarily incomplete (well all critiques are necessarily incomplete but outsider ones are especially likely to be). But on your final question, I think one of the big…

Maybe one should ask why narratives instead of detailed scientific analysis is voted up on hackernews? Do the "corporate media organizations" control hackernews now?

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#77

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #61
intelliot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there convincing evidence that resource depletion is among the highest risks to civilization? Much of what I've seen shows the opposite: for example, China is a rising superpower largely because of their huge population. Having more people means more potential productivity, and that could lead to more prosperity. On the other hand, small countries with few people are usually able to accomplish little. Places with…

I'm counting war over the increasingly scarce resources as part of the risk, so the current influence of mildly scarce resources over politics is evidence. I agree with your point that, from a nationalist perspective, population size is basically nation size.

Wars aren't generally fought over resources these days.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#78

Post by m_mueller »

einhverfr wrote: post #59
m_mueller wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) I'm fine with incomplete arguments if there is at least some attempt at an analysis shown instead of just a meaningless collection of facts and anecdotes. In that case the engaged reader could benefit by gasp thinking about it for himself . 2) So the problem is that corporate media is politically streamlined? Yes, I absolutely think so. In Switzerland we have an interesting weekly magazine called 'Weltwoche', whic…

> So the problem is that corporate media is politically streamlined? Yes, I absolutely think so. Hilaire Belloc in 1918 wrote a wonderful critique of corporate newspapers where he pointed out that their real customers are advertisers, and that in many cases, the cross-ownership of media by other corporations, as well as cross-board memberships meant that the corporate press would necessarily adopt positions friendly…

> It is a good reason to have a robust blogosphere and read blogs you might otherwise disagree with as well as those who you agree with.

I agree - I haven't really found good resources on general topic blogs however. Collections such as TrueReddit or DepthHub often start out well, but as time goes on, quality goes down. It seems like there is some kind of sedimentation force going on when people can up-/downvote.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#79

Post by threeseed »

jmadsen wrote: post #65
LeonidasXIV wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Too many older people, no longer working, who need care or support and not enough younger people to provide it. But this will be a trend that autocorrects itself after some time, as less elder people will be there in the future. Also, the younger people if both working will create more prosperity than being married with one working and the other one staying at home. In the short term this sounds bad, but long term…

Yes, but "the short term" is long enough to cause considerable pain to the current younger, working generations

The worst thing is that in places like Japan especially housing availability is a real problem. Which means you will have young people being forced to live with their parents well into their 20s.

And what happens when you have young people living with their parents ? Far less opportunities for sex.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#80

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

einhverfr wrote: post #69
InclinedPlane wrote: post #45

Because parents and schools in the developed world have stopped raising kids and have instead opted for 18+ years of babysitting. Part of the problem is that we don't even know what we're about anymore, so we don't know what lessons and principles to pass on to our children. It's a wonder that the problem isn't far worse than it is already.

One of the major things I see though in the article is the way in which modern corporate capitalism isolates individuals and tries to place career above family.

You mean how individual people choose to place career above family? Don't see how modern corporate capitalism is doing that.
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