An academic scoping review published in 2025 in the Journal of Sex Research illuminated how Japanese people are having less and less sex, estimating that around half of Japanese people reach their mid-twenties having had no sexual experiences, and approximately 10 per cent reach their 30s before having sex. And yet a different recent study, published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, revealed that around 81% of straight Japanese young adults watch porn. This latter study explored how young Japanese adults perceive the benefits and harms of adult videos (pornography), including the gendered nature of such perceptions. The researchers surveyed 251 mostly heterosexual Japanese adults, with an average age of 21. Participants were asked to identify words or phrases they associated with the benefits and harms of adult videos, and researchers analyzed the responses.
While both men and women associated adult videos with sexual satisfaction, pleasure, and crime prevention (the belief that they provide an outlet for sexual urges and fantasies), men were more likely to identify sex education as a benefit, whereas women more frequently identified stress relief. Both men and women also identified the potential for adult videos to provide incorrect or misleading information about sex and sexual relationships, while men were more likely to associate adult videos with addiction and women were more likely to express concerns that the videos could encourage sex crimes.
Something worth noting is that the study’s participants generated a wider range of words and descriptions for the benefits than for the harms of adult videos, which the researchers suggest may reflect the overall normalization of pornography in society. Overall, the study’s results illuminate how pornography has a complex role in young adults’ lives: it’s viewed as a ubiquitous source of sexual pleasure, stress relief, and sex education, but also as an instigator of drama for many a sexual subject with regards to addiction, misinformation, and sexual violence. And while the study is from within a Japanese context, these results seem relevant to cultures around the globe.
