After reading Michael Hoffman's Jan. 30 Timeout article, "The decline and fall of Japan and its sex drive," I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the opinion that Japanese are disinterested in sex. I think they are avoiding the possibility of what could happen if they have sex without having the fiscal ability to take care of the potential child that may come from it.
With some proof that many men swoon over voice actresses, anime and game characters, and other idols, I think it's safe to say that many men have interest in sex. But buying a game, and swooning over the girls in it, does not end up with a financial responsibility to care of a child.
In my personal experience, when I speak to my fiance about making a family, it always ends with "when we have enough money." But when I pose the question "if we had enough," then I am easily met with, "Three or four children would be nice."
I think that Japanese youth are simply too aware of the fact that it's too difficult to live with children when there's not enough money to raise them. While this is a good development along the lines of rational thinking, I am led to believe that this rational thinking has been a catalyst to the drop in Japan's population. I think that once finding stable jobs increases, the population will begin to increase as well. Historically, one can often trace such population decreases and increases and the direct influence that economic health has on them.