Final report: Why don't Japanese people tend to marry?

Hi guys! Yu and Keiichi will look at the decline of marriage rate and consider why it happens.

These few years the rate of marriage has been decreasing and also the number of people who can’t marriage has been increasing. Look at the below picture.

This picture shows the change of the rate of unmarried men and women by age. The shape of a cross shows people who are from 25 to 29 years old, the shape of a circle shows people who are from 30 to 34 years old and the shape of a square shows people who 50 years old. We can easily see how many people who are suitable age for marriage haven’t got married yet. This rise of the rate of single people will encourage the declining birth rates. That’s why we decided to research reasons why people don’t marry. We can find a plenty of reasons but this time we’re going to focus on these two components; Economy and Feminism.

Why these two are important factor of decline of marriage?

Economy

After the bubble economy collapsed, Japanese economy goes on growing worse. Of course, after the average income reached its peak in 1997 (4,673,000 yen), it shows a tendency to decrease. Women seem to get to be worry about an economic power.

According to the survey of the government, 67.2% out of women in their 20’s and 30’s worry about their husband income (2011).  In addition, in other survey, over 70% out of women who were surveyed also answered that the ideal income of their marriage partner is over 6 million yen. However, in fact, the men’s real average income is about 4 million (2011), so there is a big gap between dream and reality. In addition, when I compare between men who are employed regularly and men who are employed irregularly, the former is superior to the latter in terms of the rate of married people regardless of age.

Then, why do women pay attention to husbands’ income? One of factors is the fact that their amount of money they can use is reduced. Before women get married, they work and earn money as well as men. According to the National Tax Agency, the average income of women being from 25 to 29 years old is 2,950,000 yen Even if we think simply that women can use half of money which their husband earn after they get married, they will be able to use much less money after they get married.

Second one is women tend to stable orientation. Under the influence of hard times, the number of people who work irregularly is increasing. However, women naturally won’t choose them as a partner because they don’t have much money and there is some possibility which they will be fired.

Feminism

 After the economic part, we’re going to look at women. In bubble era in Japan, a lot of female who have not married were recognized as "the rest of women". This means "stock". This is because marriage was a symbol of happiness among Japanese women. However, nowadays, more and more females are still staying single even though they have boyfriends. One possible reason is economic decline due to end of the bubble. And another one is the wide-spread of feminism. I’m going to show what feminism is, what it has spread, and then compare its way of thinking and some reasons why women don’t marry.

At first, let me explain what the feminism is. The word “feminism” was created by Mary Wollstonecraft. The word “feminism” is to treat men and women equally in the society. It is distinguished depending on the era. We can define it as 3 types. First one is the movement of women demanding for the right to vote and the right to own property, called “first-wave-feminism”. Second feminism asserted that women have to be treated in the same way as men in society, and that they should have their own identities, not as “female”. This is called “second-wave-feminism”. In second feminism it mainly means that women have not to be discriminated because they are “female”. For example it should never be allowed that women are less likely to succeed to enter companies and make a good career. After the second movement, the word has been used in a broad sense. While it meant to provide same human right both for men and women in the second wave, it has come to mean that you can make your choice freely and design your way of life, regardless of men or women. Here is a common example; if your wife wants to work after marriage and bearing, you should not stop her with any reason because she has the right to live and work freely that are basic rights of human.

This is its logo.

 Next, I’m going to show spread of feminism in Japan. Since International Year of Women (1975), feminism has started to spread then many organizations of feminism were born. Since 1980s, women started to dislike arranged marriage because women were offered to have meeting with men (called “Omiai” in Japanese) basically by men; this means men chose and women were chosen. However combined with the effect of feminism and bubble era, in which women were recognized as priority status of men, most women began to have hesitation for it, and tried to have romantic marriage instead. Therefore, women who didn’t marry were told “dead stock” at that time.

 Then, I'll describe some reasons of women's hesitation for marriage, associated with feminism below.  

1.Free time to spent as she wants.

2.A lot of work for women to do.

3.Don’t want to change wife’s name

1&2. These days the philosophy that “marriage equals the best choice for women” is starting to drop out internationally because of feminism. In 1986, Japanese government stated "the equal employment act" , which gave opportunities of working to women. Nowadays most company treats women equally as men and some companies need more female co-workers because normally women are more hard-working than men. This can increase their benefits and working efficiency. Also, hiring women can help them build themselves up. Because of these backgrounds, now women can choose their way of life as they want, so the number of unmarried single women who work hard is increasing.

3. This is a kind of effects of feminism. After women married with her husband, women have to change her name to his name. They may just think changing their name is troublesome on their work and unequal. In fact some women I've met have used their old name to prevent mistakes from their new names. This isn't always big matter of hesitation of marriage but certainly problem with marriage.


Conclusion

We've focused on two factors, ailing economy and feminism. We can consider more examples as the factors of marriage rate decline however such other things are probably based on these two things. To make good business conditions in Japan, economy healthy, fair working conditions for women and high marriage rate(which helps increase a high birth rate and increase in population helps economy growth) are necessary. We young people should focus on the importance of marriage now.