Fewer young people in Japan are losing their virginities
If you’re British, you likely lost your virginity just after your 18th birthday.
When you were 18.3, to be precise.
But Japanese people’s sex lives tell a rather different story as new research has revealed that nearly half of people in Japan are entering their thirties as virgins.
In the country, where deaths have outpaced births for a number of years, a poll found that 43% of people aged 18 to 34 claim to be virgins.
According to Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, its latest fertility study found the proportion of men who were neither married or had had sex rose to 42% since the last survey five years ago.
While women without sexual experience rose to 44.2% from 38.7%.
These numbers came from 8,754 questionnaires completed by single women and men in 900 districts on the island nation.
So why is this? In a series of quick street interviews, young Japanese people gave the BBC their estimations including a lack of self confidence amongst men, finding women “scary” and preferring watching porn to attempting to ask women on dates.
But how’s the rest of the world faring when it comes to losing their V-cards?
Last year Durex released its Face of Global Sex report which included the average age at which people first have sex across 44 countries.
Published by Daily Star, Iceland turned out to be the youngest on the list, with people having sex for the first time at 15.6 years on average.
Those in Scandinavian countries tended to get it on earliest with the average age in Denmark being 16.1, 16.2 in Sweden and 16.5 in Norway.
The UK came in 19th place with 18.3, while the oldest average age of the bunch was Malaysia at 23 years old.
The second oldest age was India’s at 22.9, then Singapore at 22.8.
Here’s the full ranking:
1. Malaysia: 23
2. India: 22.9
3. Singapore: 22.8
4. China: 22.1
5. Thailand: 20.5
6. Hong Kong: 20.2
7. Vietnam: 19.7
8. Nigeria: 19.7
9. Japan: 19.4
10. Spain: 19.2
11. Indonesia: 19.1
12. Poland: 19
13. Italy: 18.9
14. Taiwan: 18.9
15. Russia: 18.7
16. Mexico: 18.7
17. South Africa: 18.7
18. France: 18.5
19. United Kingdom: 18.3
20. Switzerland: 18.2
21. Canada: 18.1
22. Netherlands: 18.1
23. Greece: 18.1
24. United States: 18
25. Australia: 17.9
26. Turkey: 17.8
27. New Zealand: 17.8
28. Slovakia: 17.8
29. Germany: 17.6
30. Brazil: 17.4
31. Ireland: 17.3
32. Croatia: 17.3
33. Austria: 17.3
34. Czech Republic: 17.2
35. Chile: 17.2
36. Belgium: 17.2
37. Portugal: 16.9
38. Bulgaria: 16.9
39. Israel: 16.7
40. Finland: 16.5
41. Norway: 16.5
42. Sweden: 16.2
43. Denmark: 16.1
44. Iceland: 15.6
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