<story><title>Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>veidr</author><text>This is a stupid article, and young people in Japan have not stopped having sex.&lt;p&gt;What westerners might call &amp;#x27;casual sex&amp;#x27; -- sex without the framework of a relationships that implies various other promieses&amp;#x2F;committments -- is normal, and also not likely to be spoken about frankly, especially to a reporter, and much less a British one.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I&amp;#x27;ll witness a young woman asked about it at a social gathering (as people have a few drinks and speak more freely). &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t have anybody... I can&amp;#x27;t remember the last time I slept with somebody,&amp;quot; she might say. What she means is that she doesn&amp;#x27;t have a steady boyfriend, and thus it is certainly none of your business who she&amp;#x27;s fucking.&lt;p&gt;Or I will see a guy asked about it. &amp;quot;Well, romance is too complicated with all I&amp;#x27;ve got going on... I&amp;#x27;ve learned to live without it,&amp;quot; he might say, with just the right amount of sheepishness. What he means is that he is seeking only sex that doesn&amp;#x27;t come with implied commitments and hassle.&lt;p&gt;These two people might very well end up leaving together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>steven2012</author><text>Why is it stupid?  Obviously they don&amp;#x27;t mean every single Japanese young person hasn&amp;#x27;t stopped having sex.  What the author means is that as a trend, they&amp;#x27;ve stopped having sex, as evidenced by the declining population, the lack of young people in relationships, etc.  From the data they cited from the surveys, it seems pretty incontrovertible that there is some sort of problem, despite your own personal anecdotes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Have young people in Japan stopped having sex?</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>veidr</author><text>This is a stupid article, and young people in Japan have not stopped having sex.&lt;p&gt;What westerners might call &amp;#x27;casual sex&amp;#x27; -- sex without the framework of a relationships that implies various other promieses&amp;#x2F;committments -- is normal, and also not likely to be spoken about frankly, especially to a reporter, and much less a British one.&lt;p&gt;Sometimes I&amp;#x27;ll witness a young woman asked about it at a social gathering (as people have a few drinks and speak more freely). &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t have anybody... I can&amp;#x27;t remember the last time I slept with somebody,&amp;quot; she might say. What she means is that she doesn&amp;#x27;t have a steady boyfriend, and thus it is certainly none of your business who she&amp;#x27;s fucking.&lt;p&gt;Or I will see a guy asked about it. &amp;quot;Well, romance is too complicated with all I&amp;#x27;ve got going on... I&amp;#x27;ve learned to live without it,&amp;quot; he might say, with just the right amount of sheepishness. What he means is that he is seeking only sex that doesn&amp;#x27;t come with implied commitments and hassle.&lt;p&gt;These two people might very well end up leaving together.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>westicle</author><text>This certainly isn&amp;#x27;t a phenomenon exclusive to Japan either.&lt;p&gt;I know plenty of western young people who have no interest in marriage, procreation or families. Maybe they&amp;#x27;re more interested in their work. Maybe they&amp;#x27;re more interested in rock-climbing. Maybe they&amp;#x27;re more interested in Pokemon.&lt;p&gt;More power to them, I say.</text></comment>