Times are changing, the song went. And for good reason in Japan, one in four bachelors in their thirties who have never married does not hide that he “did not want to get married”. Among the pretexts invoked: the fear of a loss of freedom and the associated household and financial burdens, according to a government survey published on Tuesday.
The results of the marriage and income survey were cited in the government’s white paper on gender equality, which also noted that the number of marriages in 2021 fell to around 514,000, the lowest of the post-war period, according to Japanese media.
Noting that the forms families take have diversified to include people who are unmarried, divorced or living common-law, the government has called for policies and measures to focus on individuals rather than households, with a view to revise the tax deduction for spouses and other measures.
+ Lower birth rate in Japan +
The survey conducted from December to January last year, with responses from 20,000 people aged 20 to 60, showed that 54.6% of men and 62.6% of women in their thirties were married.
Among single people who have never been married, 46.4% of men and women in their 30s said they hoped to get married, while 26.5% of men and 25.4% of women wanted to remain single .
The reason most frequently cited by men and women in both age groups for not getting married is the desire to remain free.
By gender, women are more likely than men to say they do not want to take on the burden of housework, childcare and nursing that marriage often entails, while men are more likely than women to invoke lack of financial means and job insecurity to justify their refusal of marriage.
A separate white paper says Japan is experiencing a drop in its birth rate due to the spread of the coronavirus and that it could continue to fall below pre-pandemic levels.
The number of babies born in the country fell to 811,604 in 2021, hitting a record low for the sixth consecutive year and slipping at a faster rate than the government estimated in 2017.
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