How Are Attitudes and Behaviours of Japanese Changing? (Part 2)

Osaka – Monday, March 27, 2010

In part 1, answer to question about saving that went on air in a recent TV programme in Japan was introduced, from which discussion on saving and income of Japanese people was developed throughout the article.

In this article, answers to question about divorce that went on air in the same TV programme is introduced, from which discussion on marriage then divorce of Japanese people is to be developed.

1. What was the question asked to Japanese people about divorce and what was their answer?

The questions asked was to find out how many of them are divorced, and surprising 34% answered that they are. This result was extremely shocking to MCs and guests of the TV programme as well as the author because Japanese people are well known for low divorce rate.

2. How attitudes and behaviours of Japanese people regarding marriage have been changing?

First of all, the author would like to discuss how attitudes and behaviours of Japanese people regarding marriage have been changing in this article before discussing those of divorce.

1) There used to be a stereotype concept of marriage.

With stereotype concept of how people lead their lives, there used to be a stereotype concept of marriage in Japan. Majority of Japanese people used to get married in twenties, then males devoted 100% to work until retirement and females became full-time housewives to look after the family. It was quite natural for a couple to have children quite soon after their marriage. They would plan to buy a house (often callen “my-home”), which is a dream and a lifelong task in Japan with extremely expensive real estates. With such a stereotype life plan, it is quite natural that there used to be a stereotype concept of marriage in Japan.

2) Nowadays Japanese people have tendency to marry later than so many decades ago, and marriage is diversifying.

About 40 years ago average age of people getting married was 27 for males and 24 for females, but most people tend to marry later than that today. People used to be very uneasy unless they get married before reaching the age of 30 but today single person in 30s is quite common. Only a decade or so ago, females remaining single in 30s and over used to be called “makeinu” meaning “loser” but such a phrase is now rarely used.

It is interesting to note that there are some extremely young couples (people getting married very young) yet there are some elder couples and couples of huge age gap as well. Such couples have appeared in TV programmes and the author knows in person a few such people.

A few years ago there was a popular TV programme about a romance of a 40 year old female and young male in 20s, and indeed although such a couple is minority there are such couples today. From the TV programme, “ara－for“, abbreviation of “around 40” became a popular phrase then.

Also, it was explicitly mentioned in a recent TV programme that couples of male in 40s and female in later 20s are emerging, although in many cases parents (especially father) of the bride are against and disapprove. According to the TV programme, this trend is because males in 30s, who are usually considered of good age balance with females in late 20s, are reactive (often called “soushokukei” literally “herbivory type”) and do not draw interest of females, whereas males in 40s draw interest of females because they are not reactive, can entertain females, and so forth. Other possible reason not mentioned in the TV programme is that some recent males in 40s are young externally (in appearance) and internally (keeping up with trends etc.). The fact that a big age gap couples (male or female much older) of TV starts are often introduced and this also might be influencing attitudes and behaviours of new generation Japanese people about age gap couple, making them think age gap is not a big problem anymore.

3. Why people tend to marry later in life today?

There are some factors for this including financial and social.

People who are financially independent are quite comfortable being single and rich. This is prominent for those living with parents (i.e. no need to worry about housing), for females in particular, who can use all their income for their personal expenditure. Hence, there is a phrase “dokushin-kizoku”, literally “aristocratic bachelor”, which has been used for a long time now. And unlike the old days, the Japanese society accepts such people.

It is interesting to note that some males decide not to get married young because of low income; they feel they cannot feed his prospect family with his income. With this reason, some people explicitly say that they prefer their prospect wife to continue working after marriage instead of becoming a full-time housewife.

As for the female side, many people now in 30s and 40s preferred to keep on working after marriage (at least until they give birth to a baby) but according to a recent online article, to the author’s surprise, quite a few females in early 20s, even highly-educated, dream of becoming full-time housewives early as possible. This indicates that such young females do not want to challenge work life balance and/or unleash their potential to build successful career, from how they see older women. This implies that Japan is still behind diversity.


In the next article, how attitudes and behaviours of Japanese people regarding divorce have been changing will be discussed.