TOKYO (TR) – Nearly half of married couples haven’t had sex in over a month, reflecting a growing trend of sexlessness in Japan, according to the results of a survey released on Friday.
In the survey of 1,263 men and women between 16 to 49 by the Japan Family Planning Association, 47.2 percent said they hadn’t had sex in over a month, up by 2.6 percentage points compared to two years ago, Nippon News Network reports (Feb. 10).
The rate has shown a marked increase over the past decade. The figure was 31.9 percent in 2004, the year the study was first conducted.
“The tendency of being in a sexless marriage has increased further,” association president Kunio Kitamura was quoted by news wire Kyodo.
A total of 35.2 percent of male respondents cited being “tired from work” as the most common reason for sexlessness, followed by 12.8 percent who said they see their wives “more as family than as a wife.”
For women, 22.3 percent of respondents cited sex being “troublesome” as the most common reason, followed by 20.1 percent who said “for some reason following childbirth.”
Among unmarried respondents between 18 to 34, the number of men and women who never had sex rose to 42 percent and 46 percent, respectively.