Ran across a few statistics today, all on the same page, that really have me wondering.

The first set of numbers describes the Japanese “love hotel” industry.

The Japanese Love Hotel industry is estimated to generate an annual ¥4 trillion in sales- four times the 2003 profit of Japan’s richest company - Toyota Motor Corporation. The occupancy rate for a love hotel is 260% compared with around 70% for an average hotel. Love Hotel charges in the capital, Tokyo, range from between ¥3,000 and ¥4,000 for a two-hour “rest” or ¥8,000 for an overnight stay; prices that compare favorably with room rates at most hotels in Tokyo. . . The majority of love hotel customers are in the 20-27 year-old age group.

OK. . . But right next to the above report is a another set of numbers.

In an annual global survey of sexuality, Japan consistently ranks last in terms of the frequency of which people have sex. In Japan the average is a paltry 36 times a year, compared with a global average of 97 times a year. When asked what activities they would rather do than have sex, 20% of Japanese said sleeping, and 13% said shopping. Japan fares better in other areas of sexuality though, ranking 7th in the world in the number of sexual partners, with an average of 10.2 partners compared with the global average of 7.7. Japan is close to the average in the age of first sexual experiences at 18.2 years old, close to the world’s average of 18.0.

I guess all of this means that a relatively small segment of the Japanese population is doing a whole lot of screwing around.

JP