The Land of the Setting Sun

BBC News reports alarms bells are sounding in Japan, for they have just overtaken Italy as the country with the highest percentage of population over 65 years old, 21% to be exact. The news report goes on to say, the percentage of unwed Japanese is growing. We are told, local city councils are beginning "new projects" to provide more child care, are encouraging fathers to take paternity leave, and are starting matchmaking services.

Recently, The Japan Times reported on "sexless couples" -- my comments are here. In various news reports discussing Japan's sexless syndrome, Japanese are saying sex is "tiresome"or they're overworked.

Only a bureaucrat could say this: "Unless Japanese people get more active in having children, the birthrate is unlikely to rise," Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association.

Japanese men are blamed for this trend. "'It's generally the men who're cutting back,' remarks. Dr. Tero Abe, psychiatrist at Abe Mental Clinic." Not surprisingly, marital infidelity among women is increasingly common.

In 1994, Stanford University reported Professor Carl Djerassi, developer of the first oral contraceptive, discussed the need for Japan to modernize their "birth control practices," for they were using condoms, rhythm, "excessive dependence on abortion," and a large percentage of women were illegally using "high-dose steriods pills."

In the article, the scientists went to say:

One source of opposition is a small sector of the medical community, which stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars from the abortions that are performed for about $1,000 in private clinics outside the universal health-insurance system. The official number of abortions performed in Japan is reported at around 440,000. But the actual number is higher - some estimates place it as much as three times greater - because a number of Japanese doctors perform such operations for cash and do not report them in order to avoid paying taxes. By comparison, about 1.5 million abortions are performed each year in the United States, which has twice the population. (emphasis mine)

Professor Djerassi was quoted as saying:

It is inevitable that, unless they are changed, domestic family- planning practices will adversely effect the Japanese government's ability to take an effective leadership position on birth control.

Twelve years later we know, the problem these Scientists were trying to fix -- and we should overlook Djerassi's economic self-interest -- wasn't really the problem that needed to be fixed.

For me, the most troubling thing was the "alarming" nature of Japanese doctors that perform abortions for cash, so they are not taxed, in a country with "universal" health care.

Let's see if I understand the Problem that Djerassi didn't fix: Dr. Saki kills a few unborn children by lunch, keeps the cash, doesn't pay taxes, doesn't have sex with his wife, but he's out banging his neighbor's, or he's out poking some little Geisha he met at Club Hedonism, while his wife's at Motel 6 getting bonked by GI Joe.

After Japan's defeat in the Second World War, Japan pledged themselves to pacifism; this principle is enshrined in their constitution. Two generations later, Japan has become a sexless society. Sixty years later, Japan's population grows older, young men and women delay getting married, and married couples are not having sex.

Of course, there cannot be a correlation, or is there? Perhaps, Fukuyama should study Japan's Last Sexless Man.