Regarding James Guthrie's Nov. 8 letter, "Couples' weak pursuit of romance": As someone blissfully married to a Japanese guy, I am always amused by this sort of opinion. I have yet to figure out why so many non-Japanese males feel the need to inflate their ego this way. Most of the ones I have met who make such comments have no male Japanese friends.
It seems to me that the issue of declining rates of childbirth is mostly due to social circumstances such as lack of child care, a stagnant economy, etc. It seems to me that Japanese males are more than willing to "step up to the plate."
I also think there is a huge difference between Guthrie's generalization of the "larger problem" — "the lack of affection/passion between Japanese people" — and the lack of a social custom to justify mauling one's partner in public.
Perhaps he neglected to consider some sort of unwillingness to step up to the plate on the part of his extremely narrow pool of female samples. While such observations might give him a boost to his ego, he might wish to do a little more research (before reaching his kind of conclusion).