International survey finds that Japan ranks bottom for romantic and sexual satisfaction

Oh no. One of those surveys has appeared.

Despite our best efforts to celebrate the diverse and exciting sexual landscape in Japan, these perennial surveys reporting on sexlessness in the country get lots more attention and tarnish the reputation (probably made worse by our own regurgitation of them on these digital pages).

Of course, decline in sexual activities between long-term partners is common across the world and so is a decline in dating and sex among the young, though the reporting on it in Japan tends to veer toward the orientalist.

This latest survey is a bit different, because it’s a global one conducted by the France-based Ipos.

People in different countries were asked if they were satisfied with their romantic and sexual lives. Japan placed last among the 31 countries — for the second year in a row!

According to the Ipos branch in Japan, this means that locals are “clearly dissatisfied” with their love lives and relationships.

The survey was carried out online with 24,269 adults from 31 countries.

Participants were asked if they felt satisfied with their romantic and sexual lives, if they felt loved, and if they felt satisfied in their relationships with partners or spouses.

Japan had a satisfaction rate of just 37% — the lowest. It was somewhat higher for the rate of people who said they felt loved, at 51%, but it was still the lowest. The result suggests that almost half of couples have at least one partner who doesn’t feel loved, which is a bit sad.

Japan was “beaten” to the bottom rank in the final category — satisfaction with their partner or spouse — by South Korea, though Japan still placed second to last, making it a bad showing for East Asia.

Where were people happiest in their romantic and sexual lives? Apparently India and Mexico, 76% of people said they were satisfied.

Ipsos Japan relied on familiar tropes to explain the low ranking: it “may be partially due to the fact that Japanese people are not good at clearly expressing their romantic feelings and attitudes,” the researchers said, according to media reports.

You might think the the younger Japan were getting more sex and feeling more satisfied, but the survey suggested that Generation Z were actually more dissatisfied than baby boomers and millennials, though it could be that they just expect more and better sex than their older peers. Or are the screens making them unable to achieve satisfying IRL experiences?