A review of research on sexual behaviour in Japan has found that sexual inexperience and inactivity have increased in recent decades, particularly among younger adults. The analysis covered 38 publications drawing on 43 surveys conducted between 1974 and 2024, with most of the underlying research focused on heterosexual relationships.
The review estimated that roughly half of people in Japan reach their mid-twenties without having had sex and about one in ten reach their thirties without sexual experience. Online surveys conducted during the 2020s also indicated that around half of adults aged 20 to 49 had not had sex during the preceding year.
Comparisons over time point to a pronounced change among people aged 20 to 24. Just over one third of respondents in that age group reported no sexual experience in 2002. More recent online data placed the share as high as 60 percent for men and 51 percent for women. The researchers also identified increasing sexlessness within marriage.
The authors did not settle on a single explanation. Surveys cited in the review suggested that some young adults simply did not want sex. Other possibilities included the time and cost of dating, long working hours and commutes, changing expectations around marriage and unequal household responsibilities. The review also discussed limited sex education, low use of hormonal contraception and restricted acceptance of non-heterosexual identities.
Work demands could be one part of the picture: about 30 percent of men and 15 percent of women in Japan work more than 50 hours a week, according to figures cited in the report. The authors also noted that abstinence and virginity may carry less stigma in Japan than in countries such as the United States or Britain, while fictional characters and commercial sexual services can offer other outlets for some people.
The findings need careful interpretation. The source surveys were conducted across five decades, used different methods and may not have defined sexual experience in the same way. Much of the newer evidence came from online samples, which may not represent the population as precisely as a consistently designed national survey.
Similar declines in sexual frequency have been reported in other wealthy countries, so the pattern is not unique to Japan. What stands out in the review is the scale of the reported change and the range of social, economic and cultural factors that may overlap. The evidence documents a shift, but does not show that any one cause is responsible.
