<p>Sex is an important part of human life, as each life usually starts with somebody having it. People like discussing it because it's pleasurable. And there are other things comparable in popularity, like drinking alcohol with friends, going to parties, cursing and swearing (especially for kids) and other less legal or healthy activities, like taking drugs.</p>

<p>Often when people express their concerns about feeling embarrassed that they don't do one of those activities as often as their surrounding, they say that it is such a common topic of discussion that even if they didn't initially think it was something to be embarrassed about, after some time they started to think they are less of a person for not doing it too.</p>

<p>This is a common response for people when they're being told something again and again − they start doubting themselves and whether they should change what they do. And so, this isn't unique to Japan or the teens. People of all ages and nationalities are susceptible to peer pressure about most things, given enough time.</p>

<p>One might get the impression that this is mainly an issue for teens in Japan because anime tends to depict topics that might hit close to home for certain target audiences better than others using the characters who are worried about the same things as the target audience. For example, you don't often see anime marketed for very young children in which adults are discussing complex issues of marriage and dealing with personal issues and trauma.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-10T13:43:31.067Z
2016-08-10T13:48:52.097Z
2016-08-10T13:48:52.097Z
Hakase
<p>in japan specifically, the population is on the decline. their census has detected lower reproductive rates for the population, leading to problems. 
<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30653825" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30653825</a>
google reports: 1.41 births per woman (2012)</p>

<p>clearly, 2 people having 1.41 children is not sustainable for a country.</p>

<p>japanese culture is such that nobody leaves before the boss, and the boss has to maintain respectability by staying long hours. this essentially means there is little time to consider raising a family. the government has addressed this by attempting to allot time away from work to allow conjugal visits. furthermore, the media is encouraged to promote reproductive efforts ableit with heavy censorship (due to the conservative culture). </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-10T22:02:37.563Z
It would be much better if you added some statistics from other countries so it would be possible to compare them.
Hakase
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-11T05:09:49.283Z
While this is true, we need to be careful not to blow this out of proportion. I have a hard time believing that anime writers are sitting there writing these scenes into their shows while thinking "I'd better do my part to help reverse the declining birth rate by making sure teenage boys feel like garbage for being virgins". It seems more likely the scenes were inspired by real-life peer pressure of the sort mentioned in ton.yeung's and Hakase's answers.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-10T20:34:22.370Z
2016-08-10T20:34:22.370Z
user27670
<p>From the long list of manga I read and anime I watched, especially in romance genre, including romance comedy, harem, etc, being a virgin has been depicted as something bad, especially a male virgin. Many of them have the virgin guy pretending that he is not. When his close friend, who happens to know that he is a virgin, blurted about the fact, he was seen embarrassed as if being a virgin is something bad despite them being High School Students. Another even said that if you are a virgin until 30 then you will become a wizard (IIRC it was Haganai).</p>

<p>Why is it that anime and manga depict being a virgin as something embarrassing? Does this reflects the Japanese society, mainly the teens?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-10T18:27:38.990Z
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AManIsNotAVirgin
TRiG
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-11T04:40:20.667Z
Seems like every time there's a question about sex on our site, it hits the Hot Network Questions. Like when we had [Why are anime girls drawn without pubic hair?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/28259/7579) all over the sidebar on every site from Puzzling to Parenting.
Torisuda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-11T12:50:18.780Z
Because it's embarrassing. And not in just Japan, it's that way in literally every Western country. It's been for *thousands of years*. How in the world is this surprising to you, OP?
Davor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-08-11T17:09:33.827Z
Don't have time to make an answer, but someone should probably approach this from the angle of "This is a sign of adulthood, or more specifically manhood, in many cultures."
Adam Davis
<culture>
Why is it that many anime and manga depict being a virgin male as something embarrassing?
# Why is it that many anime and manga depict being a virgin male as something embarrassing?
Posted by: username_0 on 2016-08-10
From the long list of manga I read and anime I watched, especially in romance genre, including romance comedy, harem, etc, being a virgin has been depicted as something bad, especially a male virgin. Many of them have the virgin guy pretending that he is not. When his close friend, who happens to know that he is a virgin, blurted about the fact, he was seen embarrassed as if being a virgin is something bad despite them being High School Students. Another even said that if you are a virgin until 30 then you will become a wizard (IIRC it was Haganai).

Why is it that anime and manga depict being a virgin as something embarrassing? Does this reflects the Japanese society, mainly the teens?
**Tags:** culture
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AManIsNotAVirgin  
> **username_2**: Seems like every time there's a question about sex on our site, it hits the Hot Network Questions. Like when we had [Why are anime girls drawn without pubic hair?](http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/28259/7579) all over the sidebar on every site from Puzzling to Parenting.  
> **username_3**: Because it's embarrassing. And not in just Japan, it's that way in literally every Western country. It's been for *thousands of years*. How in the world is this surprising to you, OP?  
> **username_4**: Don't have time to make an answer, but someone should probably approach this from the angle of "This is a sign of adulthood, or more specifically manhood, in many cultures."  
---
## 2 answers
### Answer by username_5 on 2016-08-10. Score: 9
Sex is an important part of human life, as each life usually starts with somebody having it. People like discussing it because it's pleasurable. And there are other things comparable in popularity, like drinking alcohol with friends, going to parties, cursing and swearing (especially for kids) and other less legal or healthy activities, like taking drugs.

Often when people express their concerns about feeling embarrassed that they don't do one of those activities as often as their surrounding, they say that it is such a common topic of discussion that even if they didn't initially think it was something to be embarrassed about, after some time they started to think they are less of a person for not doing it too.

This is a common response for people when they're being told something again and again − they start doubting themselves and whether they should change what they do. And so, this isn't unique to Japan or the teens. People of all ages and nationalities are susceptible to peer pressure about most things, given enough time.

One might get the impression that this is mainly an issue for teens in Japan because anime tends to depict topics that might hit close to home for certain target audiences better than others using the characters who are worried about the same things as the target audience. For example, you don't often see anime marketed for very young children in which adults are discussing complex issues of marriage and dealing with personal issues and trauma.
---
### Answer by username_6 on 2016-08-10. Score: 3
in japan specifically, the population is on the decline. their census has detected lower reproductive rates for the population, leading to problems.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30653825>
google reports: 1.41 births per woman (2012)

clearly, 2 people having 1.41 children is not sustainable for a country.

japanese culture is such that nobody leaves before the boss, and the boss has to maintain respectability by staying long hours. this essentially means there is little time to consider raising a family. the government has addressed this by attempting to allot time away from work to allow conjugal visits. furthermore, the media is encouraged to promote reproductive efforts ableit with heavy censorship (due to the conservative culture).
> **Comments:**
> **username_5** (2016-08-10): It would be much better if you added some statistics from other countries so it would be possible to compare them.  
> **username_2** (2016-08-11): While this is true, we need to be careful not to blow this out of proportion. I have a hard time believing that anime writers are sitting there writing these scenes into their shows while thinking "I'd better do my part to help reverse the declining birth rate by making sure teenage boys feel like garbage for being virgins". It seems more likely the scenes were inspired by real-life peer pressure of the sort mentioned in ton.yeung's and Hakase's answers.  
---
