Alone in Japan

No sex. No kids. No future?

When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned twenty-four years later, the country was still a sign of things to come—but, he began to realize, it was no longer a beacon. It was a warning.

This is a unique account of contemporary Japan, which travels from the quiet of its furthest flung villages to the aspiration and dynamism of its cities. It tells the story of how, from the mid-seventies onwards, Japanese society unknowingly embarked on a vast, silent process of transformation that is still unfolding today. It is still peaceful; it is still prosperous. But the Japanese population is dwindling at an alarming rate. As things stand, Japan’s populace will shrink by a third with each new generation; by 2070 it will have lost the equivalent of the entire population outside of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Travelling through shrines and bars, rice fields and mango farms, coffee shops and old peoples’ homes, Feiling meets with those affected by, and driving, this transformation. Through countless interviews and extensive research, he weaves together a powerful account of how and why men and women are ceasing to pair off and have kids. He reveals how sexual appetites and behaviours are both shaped by, and reshaping the evolving economy, and he considers both the dangers and the opportunities of the rise in solo living in Japan—and beyond.

For although this is a Japanese story, it will soon be playing out all around the world. A low birth rate, an ageing society, and a shrinking population are visible everywhere from Spain to South Korea. Japan is simply further down the line. So this really is a journey to the future: sex robots and herbivorous men are now Japanese phenomena, but they may soon be coming for us all.