The question, "What has happened to love these days?" is every bit as serious as the question why diets never work in this country. I'm very distressed to have to report that Japanese love, like Japanese politics and the not-so-quite-lovely outlook of the economy, is unwell. It suffers from low blood pressure and has trouble getting excited. It backs off and runs the other way, when it should stage a strategic attack. It gets bored easily, wanes and dies before it's even had a chance to color or ripen properly. One famed television commentator put it this way: Kono kuni no renai wa ima, kuso omoshirokunai (Love in this country at the moment is sh*t-ass boring).

In defense of J-love, the whole package used to be quite stirring only a decade ago when the recession was still in full swing and people compensated for lack of funds with an abundance of hormones.

Back then, you really had to toil and had go out on a limb. You had to prove your worth, if not through obvious factors like money or looks, then the old-fashioned way through magokoro (sincerity) and honki (I-mean-it seriousness). Those were the days when boys sold their Honda Cub motorcyles to buy Christmas gifts for their girlfriends and left some cash for dinner and a rabuho (love hotel). Girls formed long, long queues at cosmetic counters to buy the latest eyelash/lips/cheek-enhancing wonder product along with a bevy of expensive clothing so they could look extra nice and kachi aru (worthwhile) for their dates, deemed as both an act of service and of love.