A Japanese mother holding her baby is seen in this August 6, 2005 file photo。

"More sex." That's what one expert says is needed to solve Japan's baby shortage。

"Japanese people simply aren't having sex," Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association said。

An association survey of 936 people between the ages of 16 and 49 showed 31 percent had not had sex for more than a month "for no particular reason" -- a condition known as "sexless."

"As much as subsidies and welfare programmes are important, sexlessness is also a critical issue in this problem."

Japan's fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- fell to an all-time low of 1.25 last year. Demographers say a rate of 2.1 is needed to keep a population from declining。

Japan came last among 41 nations in a poll last year by condom manufacturer Durex, with lovers there having sex just 45 times a year compared to a global average of 103 times a year。

Kitamura said that while many men in workaholic Japan are simply too "stressed out" from their jobs to have enough energy for sex, many other couples simply do not have sex regularly。

In the association's survey, 44 percent of the people who said they weren't having much sex felt that having a relationship with the opposite sex was "very tiresome" or "tiresome."

Kitamura's advice? Couples should talk to each other。

(Agencies)

“日本所需要的是更多的性生活。” 一位專家在談到如何解決日本人口出生率低的問題時(shí)如是說。

日本計(jì)劃生育協(xié)會(huì)主任國(guó)生北村博士說：“日本人根本就很少過性生活。”

計(jì)劃生育協(xié)會(huì)對(duì)936個(gè)年齡在16至49歲之間的人做了一項(xiàng)調(diào)查，調(diào)查顯示，其中有31%的人已經(jīng)一個(gè)多月沒有過性生活了，但又“沒有什么特殊的原因”。這種狀況被稱為“性冷淡”。

“(生育)津貼和福利計(jì)劃固然重要，但在這個(gè)問題上，性冷淡也是一個(gè)關(guān)鍵性的因素。”

去年，日本的生育率(一個(gè)婦女一生中所生孩子的平均數(shù)量)下降至歷史最低點(diǎn)，只有1.25。人口統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)家指出，生育率必須達(dá)到2.1，才能防止人口減少。

杜蕾絲安全套公司去年在41個(gè)國(guó)家所做的一項(xiàng)民意調(diào)查顯示，日本人的年均性生活次數(shù)最低，只有45次，而世界年均性生活次數(shù)是103次。

北村說，在“工作至上”的日本，由于很多男人的工作壓力太大，以至于他們沒有足夠的精力過性生活，但是很多其他的夫婦也沒有正常的性生活。

計(jì)劃生育協(xié)會(huì)的調(diào)查表明，在那些沒有正常性生活的人群中，有44%的人覺得性生活“很無聊”或“無聊”。

對(duì)此，北村博士有什么建議呢?--夫婦之間應(yīng)該進(jìn)行溝通和交流。

(英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯)

Vocabulary:

sexless : lacking in sexual interest or activity(性冷淡的)

fertility rate : 生育率;人口出生率

workaholic : one who has a compulsive and unrelenting need to work(工作狂;工作第一的人)