While the Japanese government hopes to reverse declining birth rates by offering monetary assistance to families, one expert claims that a lack of sex and not a lack of funds may be to blame for a plummeting population.

Kunio Kitamara, executive director of the Japan Family Planning Association Inc. part of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, stated that the problem was the increasing quantity of what he called “sexless couples.”

Last year, a survey of 936 people between the ages of 16 and 49 revealed 31 percent were “sexless,” a term the Japan Society of Sexual Science defines as abstaining from sexual contact for more than a month without particular cause.

The Durex condom annual survey of 41 countries last October revealed that the Japanese are generally less than enthusiastic when it comes to sex. The average Japanese has intercourse 45 times a year, the global average is 103. Japan is always at the bottom of the list.

Kitamura often diagnoses couples as sexless and says that one of the contributing factors to this condition is men being stressed from work and therefore lacking energy for sex, and that although many couples have healthy, happy relationships they do not have an active sexual relationship.

“As much as subsidies and welfare programs are important, sexlessness is also a critical issue in this problem,” said Kitamura, also a gynecologist. The term “sexless” was coined in Japan in the early 90s in order to depict the low level of sex among the Japanese.

What was most evident from the JFPA results was a lack of communication among the couples. The survey revealed 44 percent of 292 people not having significant amounts of sex regarded relationships with the opposite sex as “tiresome” and those who had more regular sex were 14 points higher. Only 30 percent of those having irregular sex had ever discussed contraception with their partners.

Kitamura said the fact that condom use is still prevalent in Japan is an indicator that men are the initiators when it comes to sex and not women. He also said that with more and more women balancing work and family that it is only natural that women are less enthusiastic participants in sex since they are not the ones taking charge of birth control.

Another JFPA survey of 609 men revealed that 47percent had no plan in mind in case of an accidental pregnancy and more than half had never spoken to their partners about contraception. It is possible a lack of regular sex could negatively affect the body’s ability to produce healthy sperm.

Last month at St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kanagawa Prefecture revealed Japanese men aged 20 to 44 had a lower sperm count than men of the same age group hailing from European nations. The average sperm count for Japanese is 100, the Scottish at 128 and the French at 110. Previous studies showed pollution caused sperm count to drop and even stress can negatively affect sperm count.

Kitamura suggested those “sexless” couples ought to communicate in order to revive their sex lives and begin to increase their rate of reproduction.