Ohatu_and_tokubei

The rumors of Japan’s shrinking and aging population have not been exaggerated at all, it seems. Struggling to develop countermeasures, the Japanese cabinet commissioned a survey of men and women in their 20s and 30s, asking them various questions about marriage.

Unfortunately, it looks like the results of the survey probably weren’t what the government was hoping to find…

Seven thousand men and women between the ages of 20 and 39 were targeted by the survey, which was conducted online and by mail from December 2014 to January this year as part of a white paper on Japan’s population crisis. Only 38 percent of them responded, but of those who did respond some pretty striking results were found.

A total of 28.8 percent of the men and women who responded said were reported to be unmarried or not in a relationship. Of these respondents, 37.6 percent said they weren’t interested in a relationship of any kind.

As for why they did not want to become engaged in a relationship, the number one response at 46.2 percent from both men and women was that relationships were “too much trouble.” Multiple answers were possible, and 45.1 percent of the respondents also said that they wanted to focus on their interests instead of love, while 32.9 percent said they wanted to spend their time in work or study.

In response to another multiple-answer question. “What anxieties do you have about dating?” 55.5 percent of the respondents said they had no place to meet other single people, and 34.2 percent said they felt no one was interested in them.

Another question in the survey asked how they would like to meet a potential partner, to which 47.3 percent said they would ideally like their friends to introduce them to someone. On the other hand, only about 5 percent said they would be interested in using a matchmaking service or an NPO marriage-support service.

Japanese commenters had this to say about the survey results:

“It really is a pain. But that’s part of the fun!”
“Aren’t there many people who both have relationships and purse their interests?”
“Without a partner, it’s lonely, but they also get in the way!”
“If I don’t play Dragon Quest every day, I’ll get behind!”
“It’s less that I want to focus on my interests and more I don’t want to deal with other people on my days off!”
“I’m not interested in others regardless of whether they’re male or female.”

Perhaps this isn’t the best news for the Japanese government, but we should look on the bright side: we bet this will bolster the service-care robot industry!

Sources: Asahi Shinbun, Golden News
Images: Wikipedia (Suguri F)