France was one of the first European countries to legalize abortion and where women's liberation was most intensely experienced, especially in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, after May '68. But half a century later, its Civil Code continues to establish sexist principles inappropriate for the 21st century, which have resulted in such surreal rulings as the supposed obligation of spouses to have sexual relations.

Japan is experiencing a silent and little-known paradox: it is one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world, but at the same time one of the most refractory to anything related to sex. The latest official surveys indicate that nearly half of Japanese people have not had sexual relations in the last month; this is in addition to the fact that nearly 50% of single young people between the ages of 18 and 35 are still virgins, and that almost one in two marriages survive without having sexual relations. These phenomena worry sociologists, demographers, and even the government itself, since it is part of in a country with a birth rate at historic lows and an unstoppable aging population.