The Japan Times reports that Tokyo’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research conducted a survey in 2015 and found that 40 percent of young Japanese single adults are virgins (The Sun, ‘Japan has too many virgins’, Tuesday, Sept 20, 2016).

Of the 5,000 Japanese aged between 18 to 34 surveyed, it was found that 42 percent of men and 44 percent of women ‘had never had sex’.

Interestingly, Japan is notorious for its sleazy literature and porn. Not only the big cities but even smaller townships all over Japan are not free of smut and prostitution. But despite such seemingly ‘liberal’ attitudes to what would be deemed as despicable and against the teachings of theocratic societies, 40 perent of the adults remain virgins. The young adults are untainted by their environment and remain corrupt-free in the head.

Politicians who thrive on and peddle theocratic politics and those who will not bat an eyelid in wanting to protect their countries’ values and liberate the young from so-called ‘sin’ need to put on their thinking caps in the wake of this finding. As explained by Futoshi Ishii who heads the Institute, “the root of the issue seemed to be the gulf between how people imagine life should be and how it actually turns out to be”.

And despite the market place being flooded with what many critics will readily recognise as smut, pornography and sheer prostitution, the citizens in Japan record an overwhelming ‘virgin’ status. It means that the Japanese are not corrupted by that which is peddled so ‘liberally’ in their country.

Back in Malaysia, for example, we are screaming our heads off, banging our fists down hard on so-called or easily-labelled ‘deviants’ and what-have-you every now and then and especially when general elections come around, about how our culture, beliefs, religion and traditions will be attacked, endangered and even maimed by the sin-filled ‘foreign’ influence.

In fact we all know that one particular political party here even brazenly trumpets that it has been, it is till this date and will always remain as the sole protector of one race, its culture, traditions and beliefs. In fact our self-consecrated politicians in particular, emphasise so much on form without paying serious and learned attention to substance.

In the wake of the findings we need to re-look our future. Let us not dismiss this study with “Oh that is Japan; Malaysia is a unique and different kettle all together” arguments. We need to make a national assessment whether our politicians are guilty of meddling with realities that continue to be backed by researched findings.