Japanese men virgins @40

Takashi Sakai is a healthy 41-year-old heterosexual man with a good job and a charming smile. But he's never had sex, one of a growing number of middle-aged Japanese men who are still virgins.

Sakai has never even had any kind of relationship with a woman and says he has no idea how he might get to know one.

'I've never had a girlfriend. It's never happened,' he said.

'It's not like I'm not interested. I admire women. But I just cannot get on the right track.'

It might sound like the subject for a Hollywood comedy but far from being the social misfit portrayed by Steve Carell in 2005's The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Sakai is one of a crowd.

A 2010 survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found that around a quarter of Japanese men in their 30s were still virgins - even leading to the coining of a specific term, 'yaramiso', to describe them.

The figure was up around three percentage points from a similar survey in 1992.

The period corresponds with Japan's prolonged economic slowdown, after a stock and asset bubble burst and the one-time financial powerhouse suffered years of lacklustre growth.

Matchmaking expert Yoko Itamoto says the economic emasculation has taken its toll on Japan's men, as more of them struggle to find secure, full-time jobs.

Directly comparable international statistics are difficult to come by, but Japanese people across the board appear to have less sex than those in other developed countries.

In the 2010 survey quoted above, 68 per cent of 18-19 year olds in Japan said they were virgins; a study carried out that year in Europe by condom maker Durex found virginity rates among those aged 15-20 were much lower.