I think the trend they’re describing is more just people don’t give a shit about forming romantic relationships. This has been going on for a while—many Japanese tv drama agencies made a slew of shows aimed at trying to encourage youngsters to marry

Yea I’ve heard about this.. I think aromanticism is a bit more likely than this large populations of asexuals in Japan.

Someone on facebook pointed out that this may have to do with socio-economic issues. Since sexism and traditionally defined gender roles may be almost as strong in Japan as they are in the U.S., it may be that most of those women who expressed such a disinterest, did not want to give up a career to stay at home and take care of children. In the case of many of the men who’d expressed this disinterest, this might also be true, but it may be in their case that they are more daunted by the idea of having to support a family on one salary. I’d be interested to see more research on this topic in the future.

I think that there has been some speculation that the population of the U.S. would be on the fall too, if it weren’t for the fact of immigration. I understand the same is true for Europe — especially Scandinavia.