TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2015 INTERNATIONAL Heartache for Japan’s real-life 40-year-old virgins TOKYO: Takashi Sakai is a healthy 41-year-old that around a quarter of unmarried Japanese tough and competitive.” The pain caused by an are difficult to come by, but Japanese people streets-yet serious conversations about it are heterosexual man with a good job and a men in their 30s were still virgins-even leading inability to form emotional and physical rela- across the board appear to have less sex than few and far between. “In today’s Japan, we have charming smile. But he’s never had sex, one of a to the coining of a specific term, “yaramiso”, to tionships with women is something that one those in other developed countries. In the 2010 no place to learn about sex or how to form a growing number of middle-aged Japanese describe them. The figure was up around three 49-year-old architect, who did not wish to be survey quoted above, 68 percent of 18-19 year romantic relationship,” he said. Sakatsume runs men who are still virgins. Sakai has never even percentage points from a similar survey in 1992. named, knows too well. olds in Japan said they were virgins; a study car- the non-profit group “White Hands”, which had any kind of relationship with a woman, and The period corresponds with Japan’s prolonged ried out that year in Europe by condom maker helps heavily handicapped people find an out- says he has no idea how he might get to know economic slowdown, after a stock and asset ‘Virgin Academia’ Durex found virginity rates among those aged let for their sexual needs, based on the credo: one. “I’ve never had a girlfriend. It’s never hap- bubble burst and the one-time financial power- Only twice in his life has he had romantic 15-20 were much lower. For example, fewer “Sexual maturity means social maturity.” “Even if pened,” he said. “It’s not like I’m not interested. I house suffered years of lacklustre growth. and sexual feelings for a woman the first time in than 20 percent of young Germans had not had the person has disabilities, one who recognizes admire women. But I just cannot get on the Matchmaking expert Yoko Itamoto says the his mid-twenties and then again two decades sex by the time they hit 20, while even in social- and accepts his own sexuality tends to be able right track.” It might sound like the subject for a economic emasculation has taken its toll on later. Both rebuffed him. “It was devastating,” he ly conservative Turkey, the figure was only 37 to build balanced relations with others,” he said. Hollywood comedy, but far from being the Japan’s men, as more of them struggle to find told AFP. “It seemed to invalidate my life and percent. “People who are not sexually mature tend to social misfit portrayed by Steve Carell in 2005’s secure, full-time jobs. “Many men seem to have take away my reason to live.” On both occasions For Shingo Sakatsume, there is something get timid socially.” He now also caters to able- “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, Sakai is one of a crowd. lost confidence as they’ve lost their economic he suffered rapid weight-loss, and now fears he of a conundrum about modern Japan: a coun- bodied people whose attitudes to sex can A 2010 survey by the National Institute of muscle,” she said. “In the past two decades, the might live life as a singleton and a virgin. try where images of sex are everywhere-on tel- prove something of a barrier to their finding ful- Population and Social Security Research found situation for Japanese men has been very Directly comparable international statistics evision, in comic books and on many city fillment. —AFP News in brief Europe urges Saudi to stop lashing blogger BRUSSELS: The EU yesterday renewed calls on Saudi Arabia to stop lashing blogger Raif Badawi after the coun- try’s top court upheld the sentence against him for insult- ing Islam. Badawi received the first 50 of the 1,000 lashes he was sentenced to outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on January 9. Subsequent rounds of punishment were postponed on medical grounds. But the Saudi supreme court then upheld the blogger’s sentence of 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his wife said Sunday, despite worldwide outrage over his case. “Corporal punishment is unacceptable and contrary to human dignity,” a statement for the European Union’s diplomatic service said. “We reit- erate our call to Saudi authorities to suspend any further corporal punishment for Mr Badawi,” the statement added. The EU spokesperson said Brussels would try to pursue talks with the Saudis on “the need to recognize and respect freedom of speech for all”. Badawi, 31, co-founded the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group. He was arrested in June 2012 under cyber-crime provisions, and a judge ordered the website to close after it criticized Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police. Three Hong Kongers, Thai driver die in road smash BANGKOK: Three Hong Kong women and their Thai driver were killed when a van they were travelling in swerved off a highway and smashed into a tree in cen- tral Thailand, police said yesterday.”Four people were killed, they are one Thai driver and three women from Hong Kong,” Police Lieutenant Sayumpho Sittikul from Cha Am police station in Petchaburi province said. Three more Hong Kongers, including a 4-year-old boy, were injured in the crash which took place at around 5pm on Sunday. “They are not in a critical condition,” Sayumpho said, adding that the victims were heading south to visit a relative’s house in Chumphon province. Local news pictures of the crash site close to the sea- BEIJING: Parents wait for their children at a high school as students sit the 2015 College Entrance Exams in China in Beijing. Nearly 10 million high school side resort town of Hua Hin showed a silver minivan students are sitting China’s make-or-break college entrance exams under tight security on June 7 to June 8. —AFP upturned, its front end caved in. The bodies of four victims were laid out on stretchers at the scene, their faces covered by white sheets. Sayumpho said police believed the van swerved to avoid a vehicle ahead of it China cites ‘tremendous’ and careered into a sloping central reservation before striking a tree. human rights progress Rights groups lambasts China for harsh crackdown BEIJING: China yesterday touted “tremendous achieve- decades since it embarked on economic reform and and regions” as progress. Regarding freedom of speech, ments” in human rights, citing legal improvements, opening up. the report provided figures for the number of newspa- poverty alleviation, and protections for minorities and But human rights groups have lambasted China for a pers, magazine and books published, as well as statis- freedom of speech, even as campaign groups point to a harsh crackdown against critics of the ruling party that tics for Internet and social media users. But it did not tough crackdown on dissent and civil society. “The has seen scores of journalists, lawyers and academics mention what monitoring groups and foreign govern- tremendous achievements China has made in its human detained and dozens jailed as well as taken it to task over ments decry as a vast network of online censorship and rights endeavors fully demonstrate that it is taking the what Human Rights Watch (HRW) last month said was control dubbed the Great Firewall of China. In terms of correct path of human rights development that suits its “appalling” torture carried out by Chinese police on crimi- minority rights, the report cited the number of places of national conditions,” read the preface of a newly released nal suspects. “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2014” religious worship in mostly Buddhist Tibet and figures government human rights report. “Progress in China’s said that legal and judicial reforms were proceeding and for how many Chinese Muslims made the pilgrimage to Human Rights in 2014” was issued by the State Council stated flatly that: “The rights of the accused, detainees Makkah in Saudi Arabia last year as examples of how TEHRAN: In this file photo, the then Vice President Information Office, which falls under the State Council, or and criminals are protected”. It cited as an example the the right to freedom of worship for minorities is “fully Hamid Baghaei (center) and then President Cabinet. According to the official Xinhua news agency, use of audio and video recordings of interrogations. HRW guaranteed”. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad look at the Cyrus Cylinder the report has been released 12 times since 1991. said in May, however, that such videos are prone to William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International at the National Museum in Tehran, Iran. —AP It was published as China has made more robust manipulation. in Hong Kong, said Beijing deserves credit for at least plac- efforts in recent years to deflect foreign criticism of its ing “some rhetorical importance” on the issue of human Iran authorities arrest rights record, such as issuing its own report on human ‘Alternative reality’ rights through the report. “Nonetheless, in certain areas- rights in the United States as a rebuttal to the US State The lengthy report relies on copious data to back up especially related to freedom of expression, civil society, former vice president Department’s assessment of the situation in China.