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Economic conditions keep a lid on the number of marriages. People want to marry, but their economic foundations are shaky

11 Comments

Hideo Kumano, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. Uncertainty about the future and employment after decades of economic stagnation makes marriage a tough prospect for some in Japan. (Bloomberg)

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11 Comments
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If people can't even afford to get married then how are they supposed to possibly have kids? Marriage can be done for like $50 in Vegas.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Where did it say anything about the cost of the wedding?

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Getting married is free, but I think in Japan you are kinda supposed to have kids when you're married, so I guess a lot of people are afraid of that, especially since traditionally that means having only one earner left where there were two previously.

Or maybe some people refuse to marry without a pompous wedding and fake western priest, who knows.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Thus the Catch-22 for the Japanese economy. Young people are not marrying, and therefore not having kids, which means the population keeps shrinking and aging -- so there will continue to be too few young people to pay the social costs of the elderly in the future. But the economy is too fragile, especially for domestically-focused companies, to make many young people full-time employees rather than part-time or contract ones, and pay them a decent wage.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The economy can be a deterrent to marriage if it is bad: ditto that for having children.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

And if Japanese women weren't so High-mainenance and demanding, maybe there would be more marriages among Japanese. Lose the "housewife" syndrome. Its 2015, not a hundred yrs ago-

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

I have been saying for years on jt I suspect the J-birth rates could very well drop even more & I rack up the negs, BUT clearly it seems fewer in fact MUCH fewer people are looking to even get hitched, let alone have little ones.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the birth rate drop down to 1.2-1.3 & from there its either a miracle or it goes down even more.

Alright now go & neg me!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

'And if Japanese women weren't so High-mainenance and demanding, maybe there would be more marriages among Japanese. Lose the "housewife" syndrome.'

Stagnating wages and eroded conditions for all will knock any of that remaining syndrome out of most anyway. The female, married temps I've met at my place of work are hardly shopping in Omotesando or having Dom Perignon lunches.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I'm so curious about why it takes so much money to get/stay married, or why people seem to be under the impression that it does. Apparently my parents married without two pennies to rub together (my mother told me that as a newly-wed she had to serve meals on paper plates because they couldn't afford to buy a set of real ones). Back in the day, no-one worried about amassing large amounts of money before marriage. They just jumped in feet first, and hoped for the best. Perhaps young people these days are far too risk-averse?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Tessa,

yes very true, hell even here in Japan when the mrs & I got hitched I wasn't making a lot of $$ & neither was she BUT together we could do more than when we were apart & then you work on building from that NEW base......

Here though, the marry a tall well paid guy is till pretty ingrained & if a guy isn't making XXXX amount of yen he cant consider marriage is all a bit weird & negative.

That said though Japan has gotten MUCH TOUGHER to survive & grown since the 80s & early 90s so I think it is substantially more difficult especially for young Japanese & that is a shame & a REAL PROBLEM!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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