Current Marriage Trends in Japan

[Mashiiro]

Unfortunately, Japan’s population is declining, and it has a direct relation to marriage. Since most of them are still traditional, no marriage also means no children and here are some of the probable reasons:

1. Educated men prefer younger women or less educated. On the other hand, educated women doesn’t like less educated men. (More women are getting educated. lol)
2. More educated women=many disliking marriage inequality
3. Men do not like women who demands equal housework
4. Women wants to marry late if not never
5. Women prefers foreign men

In short: It declined because women are getting wiser. (Makes you see a different perspective don’t you think?)

[Tara4Eva]

That is right Mashiiro. It's good that Japanese women are getting wiser and had enough of that "a wife should always walk not beside but behind her husband" lol

[Mashiiro]

Tara4Eva True! I wish that they don't paint it as something negative tho. Most of the articles I've read depicts women being at fault for being educated that's why population and marriage is declining, but I wish they could see the others and blame men for their unreasonable expectation for women. I'd like to think that women should be educated.

[Yuriyuri]

I think it is true that women getting wiser can be the reason why the marriage rate is declining in Japan. But I also think men don't know how to treat women well because of early age education and the financial pressure is quite a lot for men that wants to have a family. Or even date.
When you grow up in junior high school, high school or even elementary school in Japan, you don't see many boys and girls being friends let alone best friends. Since early age in Japan, boys and girls are shamed for being close to one another. This is something that doesn't happen often in western countries. You are either supposed to be in a romantic relationship with your opposite gender or nothing at all. So, boys and girls are teased or excluded and sometimes even bullied for being friends with one another so this makes children grow without the proper understanding about their opposite sex. And after they grow up without much interactions with girls, they can create a sexist image in their heads on how women should be. Anime or even porn can create this image in their heads. So, men either wants women to act in a certain way or they lose interest in women (or dating) at all because when they face the reality, it is not so easy to understand.
Men also have financial pressure to be able to provide for his girl friend or family. Sure there are more women that are independent and offer to pay their own meals but still in Japanese society, men is supposed to provide for women. If you think about it, once a guy graduate from college, he takes at least 10 to 20 years paying it off and if in the meantime he finds someone special to get married to, he has to pay for the wedding (that can cost millions), buy a new house (that can cost millions or billions) provide for the wife and pay their kids tuition fee including college. Sure this is not unique to Japan but the pressure for a man to be able to provide a comfortable life for his wife and family comes from his parents, his parents in law, his peers and society in general.
This is why I think women becoming more independent is actually a good thing for men. But in my opinion Japanese boys need to be taught to interact properly with girls too.