While it’s not a universally held sentiment, some people will tell you that love hurts. It turns out that in Japan, for a surprising number of young people, love can also just be a pain.
Japanese matchmaking service Partner Agent recently polled a total of 1,960 men and women between the ages and 20 and 29 or 40 and 49. Among the questions asked were “Do you want to have a romantic relationship, or do you think that romance is an inconvenient pain?” Among the 20-29 demographic, 24.5 percent were of the latter opinion.
While they didn’t specify exactly what made romance seem like a bother, at least part of their reasoning seems to be a lack of enthusiasm about actively trying to meet a special someone. Almost half of the young adults, 47.5 percent, said that it’s best to just wait to naturally meet your eventual spouse, compared to 24.8 percent, who favored actively looking for a lifelong partner, and 27.6 percent who were undecided. In keeping with roughly one in two young survey participants taking the passive approach, 53.7 percent of the young adults said they’ve never been to a gokon, a Japanese group date in which an equal number of unattached men and women, with most meeting for the first time, go out to see if they’re compatible with anyone else in the group.
But if love is a pain to some of the respondents, at least it’s not particularly expensive. 40.1 percent of the young adult participants said they spend less than 10,000 yen a month on dating expenses. That might be connected to the fact that 40.9 percent said they’d prioritize their personal time over spending time with a romantic partner, as opposed to 32.3 percent who said their lover comes first.
Still, all this doesn’t mean that romance is dead in Japan. 57.8 percent of the young adults said they still hope to fall in love. It’s also worth bearing in mind that singles are generally more likely to fill out dating surveys, and while some extroverts genuinely enjoy playing the field, for a lot of people mingling and trying to meet new people is an intimidating chore, so for those saying love is a pain, part of the reason might be because they’re simply not at the fun part of a relationship yet.
Source: PR Times via Livedoor News via Jin
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese train station stirs up nostalgia with beautiful rural setting and one-carriage train
-- Samurai road rage as man attacks motorist with replica samurai sword on Japanese expressway
-- Hayao Miyazaki says Studio Ghibli once stood up to Harvey Weinstein with a Japanese samurai sword
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2018/02/22/one-in-four-young-japanese-adults-say-love-is-a-pain-in-the-butt%E3%80%90survey%E3%80%91/
12 Comments
Login to comment
Scrote
I suppose spending time with someone else means having to put down you mobile phone and interact with a living person in the flesh. For many people the loss of screen time is the real "pain in the butt".
quercetum
It depends on your position on love.
u_s__reamer
"Love" may be "a pain", but loneliness will bite you "on the butt", too.
Kabukilover
"Pain the Butt" was a poorly chosen metaphor.
But anyway, love is seldom easy no matter how much in love you are. If the mutual attraction is strong enough things will work out.
macv
then don't give your partner a reacharound
thepersoniamnow
GW
Why do we need a high population in Japan?
I actually think that besides tax revenue there are no downsides.
Toasted Heretic
Love, love will tear us apart, again.
GW
Toasted, listening to a little joy division are we LOL!!
I think its will soon be impossible to even shoot for an even 100million population here, may already be too far gone, will take a miracle for Japan to turn all this around, I will not be betting on a turnaround.....
Simian Lane
Love is a pain in the butt. There’s a song in there somewhere.
gogogo
This article says nothing... I just wasted my time reading it.
Haruka
Don't people have hobbies anymore like trading baseball cards, dressing up in the opposite sex, cooking classes?