Sexless Marriage in Japan as Women’s Political Resistance

Abstract

A recent survey by the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA) shows that nearly half of married couples in Japan are in sexless marriages. Japanese society is paying attention to sexless marriage because it is considered to be related to prolonged working hours and the current low total fertility rate. However, this interpretation of the phenomenon ignores the social conditions of sexuality and marriage relations in Japan, in which the sexuality of heterosexual married women is objectified for the needs of men in a patriarchal-androcentric society. I will use Judith Butler’s theory on gender performativity to analyse the gendered aspect of sexless marriage, and argue that sexless marriage should be viewed as a form of women’s political action against the present power system. This discussion corresponds to other related phenomena such as postponing marriage, choosing men who do not demand women to be housewives, not bearing children, and staying single. These women’s choices can and should be understood as political actions that resist constructed social norms and expand women’s modes of agency within the norms of Japanese femininity.