An occupational hazard for foreign journalists is traipsing into "exotic Japan" and getting lost in a forest of stereotypes, fuzzy data and tarted-up headlines.
Such is the case with the media's renewed obsession with reports that the Japanese have given up on sex. This canard emerges every couple of years, but it's snowballing anew thanks to an Oct. 19 Guardian headline screaming: "Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped Having Sex?" The references to dominatrixes-turned-sex counselors, men who get excited by robots, virtual-reality girlfriends and the demise of the Japanese people proved too much for Internet jockeys to resist.
Editors, too. The Guardian's piece was followed by the Huffington Post quoting a documentary filmmaker who asserted, dubiously, that "it's a strange thing that can only happen in Japan." The Japanese are really, really weird, you know, and this celibacy bubble that imperils the future must reflect their peculiar culture. Follow-ups are rolling in from the Washington Post, Slate, Time and all over the Twittersphere.
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