Here’s at least one reason that Japanese men don’t feel the need to get real girlfriends. This is not a different explanation from the one we posted on yesterday, but rather an offshoot from it. If Japan’s society makes marriage and relationships both difficult and superfluous, then of course something like a virtual substitute will fill the vote. The BBC article sounds a note of moral judgment at the end: “Or is it just time for Japanese men to grow up, have more sex and make more babies?”
Ah, but BBC, you’ve done it now. What does it mean to “grow up,” and why should modern man want to “make more babies”? That all assumes a set of traditional mores and beliefs which can no longer be taken for granted. It’s a real question, and one that’s not easily answerable by secularists. Why should modern man grow up and have children?
