A quarter of young Japanese find romance too much hassle

We stumbled upon a report of yet another survey that basically claims that many young Japanese no longer want romance in their lives.

One in four young Japanese people apparently claim that “love is a pain in the butt”.

Japanese matchmaking service Partner Agent recently polled a total of 1,960 men and women between the ages and 20 and 29 or 40 and 49. Among the questions asked were “Do you want to have a romantic relationship, or do you think that romance is an inconvenient pain?” Among the 20-29 demographic, 24.5 percent were of the latter opinion.

Almost half of the young adults, 47.5%, said that it’s best to just wait to naturally meet your eventual spouse, compared to 24.8%, who favored actively looking for a lifelong partner, and 27.6% who were undecided.

But if love is a pain to some of the respondents, at least it’s not particularly expensive. 40.1 percent of the young adult participants said they spend less than ¥10,000 (US$91) a month on dating expenses. That might be connected to the fact that 40.9% said they’d prioritize their personal time over spending time with a romantic partner, as opposed to 32.3% who said their lover comes first.

Money won’t buy you love, as they say, and ¥10,000 certainly won’t, that’s for sure. It’s barely enough for two cups of something in a coffee shop, followed by a couple of hours in a love hotel.

So, is neoliberalism the problem here? People have no money, so they find dating too much of a burden?

Of course, this survey only covers singles who respond to this kind of survey, and doesn’t mean people in Japan don’t have sex. Well, we get more than enough reports like that already. As those of us in the know are aware, there are plenty of ways to have sexual relations without “romance” — including some that aren’t a hassle at all.