The Riddle Behind Japan’s Sex Survey

Having seen the results of countless surveys which range from political ones such as public perception on the performance of the current administration to wacky ones such as preference for staying with Michael Jackson or at Iranian prison, there is one particular survey result that has baffled me for a long period of time: the frequency of sex in Japan conducted by Durex.

All of us can’t deny Japan’s leading position as Asia’s producer of legal adult media. When you mention asian adult videos for example, the word Japan and the image of sexy, beautiful and fair Japanese women just comes rushing to your mind. The names of other countries such as Thailand or China probably popped up but not as spontaneous as Japan where most bookstores, video stores and even 24-hour convenience stores set aside a section to display those media.

Since practically all of them are in Japanese language, we can safely assume they are targeted towards the Japanese themselves. As the saying goes, if there’s supply, there must be demand. And specifically on adult media, the demand for them must be very high if producers are willing to literally flood the market. By logical thinking, if the Japanese enjoy reading and watching them, then they must enjoy doing them as well. However, the survey results prove otherwise. As a matter of fact, at 48 times a year, Japan has the lowest frequency of sex in the world. Why the contradiction?

I have 2 possibilities in mind: 1) The sample used to generate the results is not representative of the general population. Durex might have surveyed people whose habits and preferences differ from the general population. 2) People who participated in the survey might have provided false information which consequently are reflected in the final results.

The first possibility appears weak considering that Durex had previous experiences in conducting surveys and hence, was unlikely to commit such fundamental error with regards to sampling. Besides, Japan was not a backward country whereby it might be difficult to obtain a representative sample and had showed consistent results for the past few years. The second possibility seems more likely considering that Japanese are very conservative people and regards talking openly to strangers about their real sexual lives a taboo despite the widespread availability of such media.

But then again, the survey results may be correct after all. The large numbers of adult media swarming the Japanese may mean they now spend so much more time watching and reading that they have lesser time doing them.