Table for One

[Strike For The South]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15915118

Sixty-one percent of unmarried men aged 18 and 34 do not have a partner, nor do half of unmarried women the same age.

More than a quarter of the men and 23% of the women said they were not even looking.

I found this article interesting and I find the other topics here boring, so I'm posting this

Well what accounts for this? Is it technology? A crushing work week? The ugliness of the Japanese people?

At the end of the day it's these kinds of sociological shifts that fundamentally change socities, not war, not money. I am disturbed, not so much by the amount of singles but by the fact that most of them don't seem to care. Humans are social creatures so why are we moving so quickly towards an insulated society?

[Lemur]

All I can think of is incentives; in other words, pairing up and being social is natural, like you said, so there must be incentives and disincentives driving people to singledom in Japan. Maybe high cost of moving/shacking up/making a home? Maybe bad social habits for how men treat women who are now too educated to put up with bum deals? I don't know. But you can bet your banana that there are incentives at work here. Just don't know what they are.

[Strike For The South]

All I can think of is incentives; in other words, pairing up and being social is natural, like you said, so there must be incentives and disincentives driving people to singledom in Japan. Maybe high cost of moving/shacking up/making a home? Maybe bad social habits for how men treat women who are now too educated to put up with bum deals? I don't know. But you can bet your banana that there are incentives at work here. Just don't know what they are.

Late marrige and small families are hallmarks of post industrialized nations but 1/4 of people aren't even looking, these numbers just seem so staggering. Something is it a play here I just can't put my finger on it

I thought about Japan being unuiqe as one the few Non-Western Post indusrials, I am vaguley familiar with the culture their and I know their are differences but this stats couple with, lets be frank, the absolutely depraved pornography that comes out go hand in hand IMO

[Lemur]

[T]his stats couple with, lets be frank, the absolutely depraved pornography that comes out go hand in hand IMO

If you want to assert a connection between tentacle porn and chronic singledom, I'm all ears. But correlation is not causation, like the man says.

[Strike For The South]

If you want to assert a connection between tentacle porn and chronic singledom, I'm all ears. But correlation is not causation, like the man says.

I wish I could! I understand that the culture is different but the rates are skyrocketting in the country itself so there has to be something driving it. Hence opening it up to the peanut gallery

[Ja'chyra]

Maybe people are happier in their own company and don't feel the need to bow to social pressure to be part of a couple any more.

A bit like people saying that marriages used to last longer in the old days, anyone tied that up with the difference in the amount of happy people between then and now? What would you prefer married and miserable or single and content, if not happy?

Oh, I'm not single, did I just spoil my own argument?

[Tellos Athenaios]

@Strike, Lemur: writing has been on the wall for some time now. For instance, increasingly divorces happen when the couple retires from working life, i.e. when they are actually forced to spend some time together.

Furthermore, Japan has a culture where people seek relief/comfort in clubs rather than in relationship which in a striking example of gender equality now includes women as well; combined with a culture which finds it fairly normal that middle aged people still live at their parents'.

So, for instance, you have a large and growing population of well-educated, high earning women for whom it is altogether much less bother (and sometimes even cheaper) simply to hire someone from a club to accompany on a day of shopping, dinning, and a night out rather than seek a partner. For men the hiring bit was always the case and often the norm, anyway. Corporate culture was/is such that if a hosting company books you a hotel room you might well be visited by an (already paid for) escort as well.

Additionally, you still have the older model of the loveless marriage which their parents are stuck with the old social inequalities and traps. There's a sentiment of “no, thanks” there.

[Beskar]

I believe there was something about the very high expecations of the Japanese Women excludes the vast majority of men, causing very high rates of being single.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I believe there was something about the very high expecations of the Japanese Women excludes the vast majority of men, causing very high rates of being single.

Possibly, but at the core one of the preconditions is quite simple really, and applies in Japan, China, and to some extent pretty much anywhere actually: do you have your own place? If yes that is an instant boost in appeal, if no you better had something really special going for you.

That is why Chinese men for instance accept very bad living and working conditions: to save up enough to buy that property. Otherwise, they believe, she will never consider them.

[drone]

It's obvious, really. The Japanese have secretly perfected sex robots.

[Ronin]

Story of my life! I keep asking, but Jessica Alba just won't go on a date with me.

have you considered Mila Kunis?
very sexy..and apparently you can get away with just asking.

[Montmorency]

That is why you Chinese men

Beskar is Chinese? For some reason, I thought he was Polish.

[a completely inoffensive name]

1. People don't know what they want in a partner and no one teaches them the tools to figure it out.
2. Our culture glorifies not being steady, not being with just one person.
3. People don't know what love is or how much work it takes to keep it going.
4. The current fight over what marriage is or isn't between same sex couples that are obviously in love and religious regressives who want to keep the definition pinned to the time period they feel comfortable with makes the entire institution seem more arbitrary to the youth.