According to a report by the Japanese Kyodo News on September 1st, the Japan Ministry of Children and Families conducted its first large-scale marriage and fertility survey. The results are intended to be analyzed in detail for future policy-making purposes.
The results show that 35% of unmarried young people do not plan to get married. Many consider income factors and the anxiety caused by changes in living conditions as obstacles to marriage. In the context of a declining birth rate, in addition to changes in young people's values, trends towards not marrying or marrying late are also increasing.
To understand the challenges and ideas faced by young people, a survey was conducted online from May 20 to August 5 among approximately 100,000 males and females aged 15 to 39 across the country. As of July 23, about 68,000 valid responses had been received.
Surveys show that among unmarried individuals, who accounted for more than 60% of the respondents (approximately 44,000 people), 35.1% stated that they have no plans to marry. 37.5% said they wish to get married in the future, and 10.3% said they hope to marry within 2 to 3 years. Another 9.5% said they hope to marry right away.
Regarding obstacles to marriage (multiple choices are possible), the most common reason chosen is “fear of not being able to earn enough income to maintain a stable marriage life,” which accounts for 40.0%. Next, the reasons include “reduced free time and shorter time for hobbies” (34.4%), “not having met people with whom one wants to marry” (32.6%), and “lack of suitable housing or financial resources for buying a house” (30.3%).
Further analysis revealed that, regardless of gender, the proportion of people who answered "have no desired spouse" was on the rise as age increased.
Moreover, the proportion of women worried about "unequal division of household chores and childcare" is higher than that of men across all age groups.
In terms of "chooses a more important thing than marriage" (optional), the proportion of choosing to "enjoy leisure and hobbies" reached its highest, at 50.8%.
