Only in Japan eh ?
Well aparently the problems and differences between the sexes in this country doesn’t apply to the virtual world, where a man has married his virtual girlfriend.
Sal9000 “married” Nene Agegasakai, a character from the Nintendo DS game, LovePlus at Tokyo Institute of Technology and included a real priest, a real audience and a slideshow of the couple’s happy memories.
I think this shows the real and growing issue amongst the Otaku (nerd) subculture in Japan who have real issues in forming relationships with the opposite sex. LovePlus has given the Otaku the chance to form relationships, however these are, literally, virtual relationships. As the population ages in Japan, causing real problems for the Economy, LovePlus and Sal9000′s “marriage” has only compounded the problem.
I did a whole semester of study on otaku culture in Japan. It was really interesting and also really disturbing. We looked at things ranging from 14 year olds writing sexually explicit manga and guides to love and sex which is just wrong through to maid cafes.
In terms of the drop in population otaku are just a small part of the downward spiral. I did a whole study on this for uni and it’s the westernisation of Japanese women or basically giving them equal rights that is causing the drop in population. Let me explain. As women are getting more power to work and forge careers they are becoming less interested in having children or having them so much later in life they only have one or two. Two keeps the population equal one means half, it’s simple maths. The problem with the drop in population is also a growing number of job vacancies. This is also giving women more bargaining power and more oportunity in the work force. Around and around it goes making the problem worse. It sounds realy sexist but the research shows it’s true. Because Japan is such a monocultural country it is easy to see how the change in gender roles can affect the population. In the west we have mass imigration to cover up the fall of population. So the old women in the kitchen and men at work model works if you want to raise your population. Sad but true.