80 percent of young Japanese don’t have lovers!?

Source:Tokyo Shinbun

According to a questionnaire, which ends with the young japanese who turned 20 this year, 80 percent of young Japanese don't have lovers. Does Herbivorization of young Japanese - an expression which describes a social phenomenon that appears to young people who are less aggressive than they are supposed to be when in love -  is progressing up to here? We asked an analyst.

The marriage information service company O-net conducted a surver to which targeted  the new Japanese adults every year. This year, 77 percent of the respondents  answered “I don’t have a partner”. The first questionnaire conducted in 1996 showed 50 percent response and it increased year after year. Those who responded that they don't have partners grew by 27 points in 15 years.

Associate Professor Kazuyo Habuchi who specializes in communication theory at hirosaki University said, "By academic research, I estimated that two-thirds of 20 year-old Japanese don't have lovers but I am not sure if the 77 percent is true."

The survey of O-net for the monitored 800 users who registered on the research company, Rakuten, which provides online shopping sees that "the people who are fanatic about the internet are bad at associating with the opposite sex. That's why the figure was slightly high."

According to Habuchi's explanation which is based on the academic research, the people who have lovers in the past had increased but it hit its peak in the mid-2000s. The recent study says that students among the middle and high school tend to decrease their interests to romantic overture and sex. Furthermore, the study assures that current young people don't hope to have any more romantic relationships.

The marketing writer Megumi Ushikubo, 43, who is knowledgeable to teenage romance, analyzed the current trend. She said, "Young people can't have fantasy towards love and romance because of the economic depression."

When Ushikubo surveyed young people, she heard their thoughts that, "love is a hassle", and that, "I get more excited when I see Arashi's -a famous idol group in Japan- DVD." some young people prefer to have a close relationship with their parents who are still young at heart rather than to spend their time with their lovers.

Ushikubo remembers that when she was young, everyone was embarrassed not to have lovers, but modern young people are not embarrassed to have no lovers.