More than a third of married couples in Japan have stopped having sex, many of them because they are too tired or just can't be bothered, a government-backed medical researcher said on Wednesday。
About 37 percent of couples surveyed this year by Kunio Kitamura, head of the Japan Family Planning Association, said they had not had sex for at least a month, compared with 32 percent in 2004.
The most common reason, given by a quarter of the males surveyed, was being too tired after work, while 19 percent of women said sex was too much of a hassle, he told reporters。
"It's a question of work-life balance," Kitamura said in a telephone interview. "This is not something that the individual can tackle alone. The people who run companies need to do something about it."
His written survey involved 647 men and 821 women aged up to 49, who are married。
The trend could have serious consequences for Japan, whose falling birthrate and aging population are continuing headaches for the government。
The average number of children born to a Japanese woman in her lifetime was 1.34 in 2007, compared with 2.1 in the United States in 2006.
Kitamura said doctors may also be partly to blame for Japan's negative attitudes toward sex during pregnancy or after giving birth。
He is set to report to the Ministry of Health on his findings next year。
日本一名政府醫(yī)學(xué)研究人員于本周三稱，目前日本有超過三分之一的夫婦不過性生活，其中很多人是因?yàn)樘刍蛘咧皇窍勇闊?/p>
日本計(jì)劃生育協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)長(zhǎng)Kunio Kitamura稱，在今年的調(diào)查中，約37%的受訪者稱他們至少有一個(gè)月沒過性生活，而2004年的這一比例為32%。
他在接受記者采訪時(shí)說，其中最普遍的原因是下班后太累，有四分之一的男性給出該原因，而19%的受訪女性則認(rèn)為性生活太麻煩。
他在接受電話采訪時(shí)說：“這是一個(gè)工作與生活平衡的問題，無法依靠個(gè)人的力量解決。公司管理層應(yīng)對(duì)此采取一些措施。”
這項(xiàng)書面調(diào)查共有647名男性和821名女性參加，他們都是年齡在49歲以下的已婚人士。
這一趨勢(shì)可能會(huì)給日本帶來嚴(yán)重后果，出生率持續(xù)下降及老齡化加重一直是日本政府最頭疼的問題。
日本去年的生育率(平均每個(gè)婦女所生孩子的數(shù)量)為1.34，而2006年美國(guó)的生育率為2.1。
Kitamura稱，醫(yī)生的不盡職也是日本對(duì)待女性妊娠期和產(chǎn)后性生活問題消極態(tài)度的部分原因。
Kitamura將于明年向厚生省提交該調(diào)查結(jié)果。
