As Japan's birth rate plummets amid a generational fertility crisis, experts are calling the explosion in the sex doll industry a new threat to the country's already dire demographic problem - some even say it will "end up" the Japanese race.
According to the documentary Substitutes, industry insiders say there are about 2,000 sex dolls sold annually in Japan. Assuming the costs will come down and the Japanese industry will continue to work for 14 hours, resulting in tens of thousands of sex dolls on the island nation within a decade. You may already find them in the closets of your friends in Japan.
For sex doll seller Noburu Tanaka, the advantage of owning one of the ¥ 420,000 ($ 3,750) synthetic dolls is no expectation. “It's an amazing feeling. It looks like a doll, but you feel like she's really alive,”he said. “When you make love to your wife, some problems can arise. There will be no problems with the doll."
For Kanako Amano, a demographic expert at the NLI's Tokyo-based research institute, dolls pose a threat to the future of a country whose population is estimated to decline by a third in the next 30 years.
“The biggest problem in Japan is the declining birth rate and population. This is called a national disaster,”Amano said. “The Japanese are at a crossroads, threatened with extinction. We are an endangered species.”
In the early 1950s, the fertility rate hovered at 2.75 healthy children per woman, according to UN data. By 1960, as businesses asked for more and more of their workers, the fertility rate had dropped to 2.08. Japan has dropped to a critical threshold known as “reproductive fertility,” the absolute minimum to avoid population loss.
In the early 1950s, the fertility rate hovered at 2.75 children per woman, UN data show. By 1960, as the business employed more and more of its employees, the birth rate had dropped to 2.08. Japan has dropped to a critical threshold, an absolute minimum, to avoid population loss.
“At that time, the enrollment rate of women in universities exceeded 40%,” says University of Tokyo economist Hiroshi Yoshida. However, as the number of women in the labor market increased, the birth rate began to plummet. Today, more than 50 years later, the birth rate in Japan is at 1.41, the population is falling, and long hours of work remain the norm. - Business Insider.
Promotional video:
However, “loneliness among the elderly” seems to be one of the main indicators of the rise in the number of sex dolls in Japan. To sell the doll to owner Mora, for example, he acquired his polymer companion after the death of his wife.
Moru, for example, bought his polymer companion after the death of his wife.
“My heart was empty,” he said, pointing to a row of dolls sitting in a sitting position on the couch. “When I met them, my life became inextricably linked with them. Ever since these girls came to my house, and thanks to them, I no longer felt lonely …"
Moru and his friend Keroro, who owns up to 20 dolls, travel together to parks, where they pose with dolls on benches and elsewhere to take pictures.
And it's not just men who do it!
The female model Hitsuji, who is very popular with the youth of Japan, says she adores her Mashiro doll - and says she has no desire to live with a man. “Masiro is not a friend, family member or loved one. She is a being that accepts my love,”she said. "I have never interacted with such men."
Meanwhile, China and Hong Kong are suffering from similarly low fertility rates amid an epidemic of “grassy men” - lame, feminized Chinese male children who refuse to make love to women.
Indeed, Hong Kong suffers from an army of loners - an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people - usually in their 20s or 30s, who choose video games, anime and internet porn over wives, sex, and the inevitable children that follow.
We can blame the prevalence of smartphones, laptops, computers, tablets and other electronic devices. We can even blame it on esports, a new pseudo-sport that is sweeping cities with government backing. It can also be interpreted as another excuse for people to immerse themselves in the digital world, rather than experience the real feeling. - SCMP.
These sexless men are known as “otaku,” a Japanese term for socially uncomfortable men who have isolated themselves from their families and romantic prospects. “These 'geeks' are typically die-hard anime and manga fans with little interest in dating,” writes Luisa Tam in the South China Morning Post.
Another step into the abyss is "soshoku danshi" which translates to "grassy men" or "herbivorous men" - a term coined by Japanese columnist Maki Fukasawa who describes these particular isolationists as a "monastic approach to life and relationships," which of course does not include sex.
Studies in Japan show that this class of men, usually in their 20s and 30s, accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the male population. Obviously, their reluctance to breed is a serious cause for concern. Japan has had one of the lowest fertility rates in the world for nearly a decade - SCMP.
Hong Kong has seen a sharp increase in the number of “herbivorous men,” according to Dr. Paul Wong Wai-ching, assistant professor of social work and social management at the University of Hong Kong.
And while some experts argue that a slowdown in population growth could ease the pressure on China to create new jobs when technology increases productivity, others think China is in deep trouble …
“They had to lift all fertility restrictions before 2010,” says Baochang. “No matter what steps they are taking now, the trend of low fertility in China is no longer reversible.” In three decades, 1/3 of China's population will be over 60 years old.
Meanwhile, China's One Child Policy, and now the Two Child Policy, has taught the population to avoid large families.
In a generation that grew up without siblings, the one-child mentality is deeply rooted. Maternity leave policies have been expanded, but some women say that taking the leave twice is a career barrier. A survey conducted by the All China Women's Federation showed that 53% of respondents with one child did not want a second.
Even without birth restrictions, China's economic development would lower the birth rate, according to Martin White, an expert on the Chinese experience at Harvard University. This has been an example elsewhere in the world: when incomes rise, family sizes tend to decline.
"If the nation abandons its fertility policy now," White says, "China will learn what many other countries have learned - that it is much more difficult to get people to have more children than it is to get them to stop making them."