Close to half say they weren’t in a relationship with the guy at the time.

Finding time for romance in Japan can sometimes be a difficult task. Many secondary schools prohibit their students from dating, under the logic that doing so keeps them focused on their studies. In college, most social interactions are centered around group activities with members of the same extracurricular clubs or research teams. And once you hit adulthood, there’s a chance that your company will pretty much dominate your day-to-day schedule, what with all the overtime and after-work drinking sessions.

So it’s not so surprising that many Japanese women end up finding the emotional/physical companionship they crave in the arms of a coworker. Still, the results of a recent survey show the practice to be surprisingly common among its participants.

Aikatsu, an Internet portal catering to single women in their 20s and 30s, recently polled its female users, asking how many of them have, in its delicately chosen words, “had a physical relationship with someone from your workplace.” Out of the 1,162 responses collected, more than three in four women said they had slept with someone from the office.

45.5 percent of the survey participants said that not only had they had sex with a male colleague, and that the physical union had happened without the two being in a committed romantic relationship. An additional 32.2 percent said they’d only crossed that line after entering into a relationship with a male coworker, leaving just 22.3 percent who had never mixed business with consenting-adult pleasure.

Now, obviously, this shouldn’t be taken to say that people in Japan treat their offices like a meat market. However, as mentioned above, Japanese society often leaves adults with precious little time to meet people (or do much of anything) outside of work. Japan also has virtually no stigmas about romances beginning in the workplace, as long as things are kept discreet and everyone keeps fulfilling their professional responsibilities.

It’s also worth reiterating that out of those women who had consummated an office romance, a substantial portion only did so after they’d already become boyfriend and girlfriend, so it’s not like the Japanese business world is a hotbed of steamy, no-strings-attached sexual hookups.

So while Aikatsu’s survey suggests that love/lust can start to bloom in a Japanese office, it’s probably still a smart idea not to immediately assume that anyone who smiles at you in the break room is open to an even friendlier rendezvous between the sheets after you clock out.

Source: PR Times
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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