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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?

#101

Post by throw_away »

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. - "-…

The only people I've ever encountered using the "a (Japan|Chin)ese" construction were (Japan|Chin)ese people themselves. Which may have rubbed off on GGP from GGP's Asian spouse. I've wondered if there was some correlation in Asian languages, but the English translation of the Japanese version of that wiki page makes it seem as if the concept of demonym is foreign to Japanese readers: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&pr... (and there's no Chinese version, as far as I can tell).

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#102

Post by jpatokal »

ceautery wrote: post #84

I loved the picture of the couple leaning away from each other; I think I was supposed to see that as an indicator of the purported epidemic. I think what the article was, however, was an advertisement for the former dominatrix. Apparently you can pay her to talk to you about women, pay her more to get naked while she talks about women, and maybe if you play your cards right...

Generously assuming your comment is merely clueless instead of intentionally offensive, that sort of subtlety would hardly be necessary, as finding commercial sex in Tokyo is trivial. Most larger train station have red-light districts in the immediate vicinity, with (Japanese-only) signage making it extremely clear what's available.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#103

Post by einhverfr »

einhverfr wrote: post #82
alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Having lived in some other countries, I disagree. This corresponds with corporate domination of the economy. Where small businesses dominate, family becomes more important. The reason is that family becomes the primary source of small business capital.

(The family also becomes the source of one's "career" as well. It isn't that women don't participate in family businesses. They do, extensively. It's that family and work time are no longer separated by a wall.)

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#104

Post by alinajaf »

Very interesting article, multiple points to make:

If living and being in Japan has taught me anything, it's that generalising from anecdote is not a good idea.

Case in point, if you visit an outlet mall a few miles outside of central Sendai on a weekend, you'd have a lot of trouble convincing anyone that Japanese people aren't making enough babies. It was very, very difficult to spot single people, or even couples without babies crawling all over them on our one day out there.

In a population of nearly 130 million, if there's any generalisation you want to make about Japanese people, you'll find enough anecdotes to put together into a convincing article.

On the usage of mendokusai, I think the author of the article may have misunderstood in the situation he's describing. I believe that in this situation mendokusai meant "It's tiresome to be constantly propositioned by male colleagues at work" rather than "I would have sex with everyone, but I can't be bothered". IME you use mendokusai whenever you're tired of something, along with describing a task that is tiresome.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#105

Post by emiliobumachar »

veidr wrote: post #73

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…

Do you think that the Japanese would be less inclined to speak frankly about their sex lives with foreign reporters or pollsters than, say, Koreans, Italians or Americans?

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#107

Post by mtts »

randomafrican wrote: post #52
intelliot wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably, it appears that prior generations had higher birthrates because women were not expected to participate in the workforce. They didn't want to and/or weren't allowed to. They were treated differently than men. A potential downside of making women equal to men is that they become more similar. They don't need each other. They don't complement each other anymore. Opposites attract, but if women are expected to s…

It's more an imbalance between social expectations and modern living. More conservative societies see a steeper decline in birthrate as women participation in the workforce increases. That's why France has one of the highest birthrate in Europe for instance.

> That's why France has one of the highest birthrate in Europe for instance.

France has very active policies in place to promote large families, which is why if you run into a French couple with children they'll often have three or more instead of just one or two.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#108

Post by hclee »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #105
veidr wrote: post #73

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…

Do you think that the Japanese would be less inclined to speak frankly about their sex lives with foreign reporters or pollsters than, say, Koreans, Italians or Americans?

Haha. They can't resist hormones and desire. Platonic love forever is lying. Japanese could do better as they have highly advanced porn and sexual industry.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#109

Post by po »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #105
veidr wrote: post #73

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…

Do you think that the Japanese would be less inclined to speak frankly about their sex lives with foreign reporters or pollsters than, say, Koreans, Italians or Americans?

Japanese are less inclined to speak frankly about anything to anyone. A western reporter is probably more likely to take what they say at face value, without understanding the subtlety of their response and then report it as truth, especially when it supports a click-bait headline.

Re: Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?

#110

Post by jimgardener »

Not all people in India have premarital sex.In cities it may be different.But in rural areas very few does.This is not something people discuss with a journalist.I know many young men belonging to Christian communities who consider sex outside of marriage as a bad thing.
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