Japanese prefer eating to sex

The interest in sex has been very low in Japan for years. That sounds strange, but there also seems to be a sex recession in the Netherlands and in other countries. Nevertheless, the outcome of a recent study can at least be called striking. It turned out that the Japanese – unlike people from most other countries – put sex at number 5 and eating at number 1.

Japan: Eating on 1, sex on 5

This striking result comes from a study by Tenga, a Japanese manufacturer of sex toys. The company did research on sex around the world (2019 年マスターベーション世界調査, or click here if you prefer to read the English translation).

One of the questions in the study was “what is the most pleasurable thing for you?” Not surprisingly, ‘sex’ scores highest in most countries. Except in Japan. There, ‘eating a delicious meal’ was number 1. In Taiwan sex is 3 and ‘being with people you love’ is 1 and in Germany ‘hugging’ is at 1 and sex is #2.

In Japan, sex scores lower than ‘being with people you love’,’ hugging, and ‘laughing’. It only scored slightly higher than ‘(6) quenching your thirst’.

However, the results are not entirely surprising. Another study, earlier in 2019, also showed that eating scored higher than sex. From the choice of eating, sleeping or sex, the preference was 53.7%, 38.7% and 7.6% respectively.

Japanese are not very satisfied with their sex life

Only 41% of the Japanese say that sex with their partner is ‘satisfactory’ or ‘somewhat satisfactory.’ The group of Japanese people answering ‘very satisfactory’ is only 9%. With that, Japan scores the worst. Worse than Korea (15%) and Taiwan (14%). Spaniards and Americans scored highest in satisfaction.

Research critique

The survey was conducted among more than 10,000 respondents in nine countries in Asia, Europe and the US. Although the number of respondents was high enough per country, question marks can be placed with the translation of the questionnaire.

In the original questionnaire, for example, the Japanese word kokoroyoi (快い) was used for ‘satisfactory’, but the meaning of this Japanese word is much broader. It can also mean ‘healthy’, ‘pleasant’, ‘comfortable’, or even ‘inspired’. It is also not clear how the word is translated into other languages.

To a tweet about the research by ‘UnseenJapan‘ it was also responded that Japanese might have provided socially desirable answers. It is embarrassing for Japanese to talk openly about their sex life.

You could also conclude that the Japanese are simply very enthusiastic about their food culture. Their restaurants and supermarkets are perhaps the best in the world. And the amount of TV programs about food is almost overwhelming. The term ‘foodporn‘ is not shunned. If you add the numbers 1 and 2 of their answers, you can also conclude on the basis of the question: “happiness is eating with people you love“.

Perhaps it is all just a matter of priorities?