Japan Population Decline? Too Many Virgins Fuels Birthrate Crisis

Nearly half of all millennials in Japan are virgins, according to a Japanese survey.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research recently surveyed people from Japan ages 18 to 34 and found that a large percentage of people who were unmarried were not in a relationship. About 60 percent of unmarried women and 70 percent of unmarried men were not in any kind of relationship, Japan Times reported Thursday.

Of those surveyed, 44.2 percent of women revealed they were virgins, while 42 percent of men revealed they, too, had never had sexual intercourse. The study conducted in June 2015 included 6,598 married couples and 8,754 singles.

The study's findings are not exactly surprising. The birthrate has dropped significantly in Japan, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to encourage more couples to “boost the birthrate,” according to Japan Times. The Japanese government has also added services that it hopes will encourage families to reproduce, like increasing availability at nursery schools.

Japan’s census recently released numbers from 2015 that revealed a staggering population drop largely attributed to its sinking birthrate and its aging population. In 2010, the census showed the population at 128 million. By 2015, it had dropped to 127 million, the Washington Post reported.

Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has conducted the survey once every five years since 1987. When the most recent subjects were asked about how they saw their future, 90 percent said they could see themselves getting married “sometime in the future.”

“They want to tie the knot eventually,” said Futoshi Ishii, head of the institute's population dynamics research department. “But they tend to put it off as they have gaps between their and the reality.”

Ishii added: “That’s why people marry later or stay single for life, contributing to the nation’s low birthrate.”