Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

Some very interesting reports came out of Japan recently. It seems that young Japanese men are refraining from forming relationships with women. Men in their 20s and 30s are increasingly electing to remain single and even to abstain from sexual entanglements altogether. This is affecting the Japanese birth rate, which stood at 1.43 children per woman in 2013, below the 2.07 which is estimated to be necessary to maintain the population.

These asexual men have bizarrely been nicknamed "herbivores" for their apparent lack of interest in female flesh. However, as one expert has pointed out, their lack of carnal engagement might better be referred to as "fasting," given that it involves no attempt at reproduction at all.

Two reasons are given for Japanese male youth's curious aloofness concerning their female counterparts.

The first one is that these men feel that they lack sufficient finances to support a partner. It is simply cheaper for them to be single.

The second is that they just can't be bothered with relationships. It's too complicated and tiresome to have a girlfriend or a wife.

In the end it may be that the second reason is the more significant one. Japanese men don't want their emotions to be over-stimulated.

They prefer no strings attached encounters with easily-available prostitutes or online porn sites to having to deal with the demands of a long-term lover.

The question now is whether the phenomenon of "herbivorism" is going to spread to other countries, or whether it is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.

Some experts think that male sexual abstention is going to spread to the US. However, I would say, given greater cultural similarity, it's far more likely to catch on in other East Asian countries such as South Korea and China.

The Japanese phenomenon of "otaku" (who are defined as young, nerdy males who prefer the company of their computer to real people) has already hooked in large numbers of young men. In China, these youths are known as zhainan, a term which is a direct translation of the Japanese term.

It seems to me that it is only a small step from zhainan to herbivore. A young man who is immersed in a cyber world of virtual reality to the point of addiction is likely to be one who is going to have difficulty (or indifference toward) forming relationships with real-life women.

Add in the fact that these same young men mostly have very limited financial means, since they often have a hard time getting well-paid work, and you have a recipe for herbivorism.

Beijing's ant colonies, defined as neighborhoods where young male graduates cluster together as they try to build a life for themselves, must be full of zhainan and potential herbivores. Thus it is surely only a matter of time before the peculiar Japanese custom of sexual vegetarianism reaches the mainland, where it will find fertile soil in which to plant its supposedly asexual seeds.

So, young men, beware of too much solitude! After all, stable relationships amid a loving family are far more beneficial for both mental and psychological health than spending all one's time alone with a screen.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.