HIRAYAMA MAKI    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Arts and Letters    Position   Professor
Date	2020/09/23
Presentation Theme	Impact of COVID-19 on Sexuality in Japan
Conference	The politics and intersections of COVID-19: Critical perspectives from gender studies(online seminar)
Promoters	Center for Gender Studies, Karlstad University,
Conference Type	International
Presentation Type	Speech (General)
Contribution Type	Collaborative
Venue	Sweden (online)
Publisher and common publisher	Alice Pacher and Maki Hirayama
Details	This research project aims to investigate the nature of sexuality among married and non-married Japanese people under this COVID-19 pandemic. The presentation, after an overview of Japanese media discourse on sexuality, shows the results based on the online survey conducted by Hirayama and Pacher, from May to June 2020. It reveals the fact that the lockdown had some positive impacts regarding couple and sexual relationships which were not reported in the media. In addition, other findings are also pointed out such as gender gap in desire to be in a committed relationship and in maintaining work-life balance among married couples. A follow up survey is needed to understand whether the changes in intimate relationships will be long-term changes or whether we see these changes only during a pandemic. Nevertheless, our survey has already revealed hitherto unknown facts concerning gender issues and the sexuality of Japanese people.