[Nyororin]

In my experience, in Japan, it isn`t that big of a deal. While I think that virginity is romanticized to some extent, there is a lot of emphasis on actual intercourse being very painful for the girl the first time.

You do not hear to much about the sex part, but once a pregnancy is involved, a marriage to follow is somewhat expected I think. Also living together before marriage is traditionally looked down upon.

This sounds about right. People don`t really care all that much about sex, but when it comes to having a baby - you`d better be married. It is sort of interesting how it is perfectly alright for a couple to be involved sexually with no one batting an eye - but living in the same apartment is kind of scandalous.

I think some of this goes back to drawing a line between sex and marriage. Sex exists independent of love/marriage/etc, cohabitation and procreation is entirely linked to marriage. Sex before marriage is fine because sex isn`t something that is considered exclusive to marriage - cohabitation is, so is a bit scandalous (more so with older generations than younger, but the stigma is still there).
You could say "My sister spends so much money on hotels with her boyfriend, it`s ridiculous!" (meaning she is having sex with him all the time) and have everyone just laugh or complain about how expensive hotels are, etc etc... But if you say "My sister moved in with her boyfriend." It is immediately serious, and everyone wants to know when they`re getting married, are your parents okay with that, etc etc.

I wonder what Buddhist teaching is like regarding virginity before marriage...since it seems there is a huge Buddhist element to Japanese society (many of them having Butsudan in their house)

Buddhism in Japan doesn`t even touch that sort of thing. The Butsudan is exclusively for funeral purposes - don`t have a family member who died while living with you? Then you most likely don`t have a Butsudan.

Virgins are troublesome.

I always liked virgins. But I`m a girl, so I`m sure a male virgin guy is a bit different than a female virgin.