More couples are finding themselves so burdened by an increasing workload, that they find themselves too tired mentally and physically to be bothered with one-on-one sex.
But rather than divorce, sexless marriages appear to be opening the door for mutual masturbation, the Mainichi Daily News reported.
Real estate agent Shukan Jitsuwa told the paper that it has been two years since his marriage went sexless.
“It started when my wife got a job and we were both working. I didn't come home till late and my wife left early,” Jitsuwa said. “Whenever she tried to initiate anything, I'd always be too tired and she'd get mad at me. I had no choice but to start taking my own sexual frustrations into hand, so to speak.
“While I was continuing with my self-employment, I was surprised to learn that my wife had been doing the same thing," the 25-year-old said. "My wife would wait for me to go to sleep, then whip out her little pink vibrator and complete her deed. When we both realized what we were doing, we started to do it together so we could ascend to heaven at the same time."
And more bars — called “happening bars” — accept wanking in public.
“You'll get young salarymen boast of their prowess to young women, who'll willingly watch while he wanks," one source told the paper. "At happening bars that attract a considerable regular female clientele, it's not uncommon to see a sloshed young woman playing the banjo in front of a group of male onlookers."
Some experts in the field of sexology aren't quite so sure what this all means — but they point to porn.
"What we're seeing is undoubtedly an adverse effect of the virtual reality world," Dr. Mitsugu Shiga told the paper. "Thanks to personal computers, young people nowadays can get whatever they want in a sexual context. Personal computers give them access to photos with the genitals fully exposed, as well as to hardcore movies.”