Interest

BBC Documentary Features Otaku Culture Tonight

Tonight, a documentary on Japan and sex, including otaku culture, will be screened on BBC2 at 9 p.m. (except in Scotland, when it will be shown at 10.40 p.m. on Saturday). The title is "No Sex Please, We're Japanese." According to the BBC website:

In a world where people panic about the rising global population, Japan is facing a very different future which could see their population shrink by a third in just 40 years. One reason is that the Japanese are not having enough babies and the causes of that form the basis of Anita Rani's intriguing journey.

Part of a season of programmes on population for This World, No Sex Please, We're Japanese explores Otaku culture - the world of nerds and geeks obsessed with computer games and Manga cartoons - which has led to a withdrawal of many Japanese men from the whole dating game. Anita meets two men in their late thirties who have in depth relationships with virtual teenage girlfriends as part of a role playing game: 'I think twice about going out with a 3D woman', says one.

There is also a related article on the BBC website, called "The Japanese men who prefer virtual girlfriends to sex." This page also includes an extract from the documentary, in which "otaku" men talk about the virtual girlfriends in a Nintendo game, Love Plus. One of the men says, "It's the kind of relationship we wish we'd had at high school."

The documentary follows a much-publicised article in the Observer newspaper last Sunday, called "Why have young Japanese people stopped having sex?" (However, the article's claims have since been challenged, for example in this Kotaku piece called "Wrong about Japan and Sex.")