Pandemic delivers major blow to number of new marriages in Japan: study

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a major decline in the number of new marriages in Japan, with there expected to be some 150,000 fewer newly wedded couples than expected in the three years to the end of 2022,

Pandemic had effect but now pandemic is over

The researchers also attributed increased financial stress as among the factors linked to the projected decline.

"The social and economic impact of the coronavirus takes time to manifest," Chiba said. "Policymakers need to recognize a crisis is steadily approaching."

So far what policymakers has done about it?

The number of new marriages in 2020 stood at around 526,000, about 50,000 lower than the projected figure, while the number for 2021 was expected to be about 501,000, some 63,000 fewer than the forecast, the researchers said.

I wonder whether the researchers considered the fact that many couples postponed their marriage registrations (and ceremonies) from 2020 to 2021.

Pandemic had effect but now pandemic is over

Headline: Japan reports record high 250,403 coronavirus cases; 34,243 in Tokyo

Yep, seems over.

Nothing can or will stop real love.

Sounds like a good , clean way to avoid a promised betrothal ....."sorry Dear, it's not you....it's Covid."

You know, I'm actually surprised that the j govt hasn't told the j media to shut up about the covid thing. Seriously. As you know there is the kishi club in which there is an unusually close relationship between j journalism and the j govt.

Truth be told, japan can't afford a shutdown, lockdown, slowdown, anythig down because it would kill their extremely fragile economy.

Yes, it’s surely difficult to make contact, flirt, kiss or babies, with all potential partners fully face masked and in 2m distance or even working from their home, so you can only virtually meet. And if then additionally your bank account has been massively emptied from pandemic and hyperinflation… Game over.

Pandemic delivers major blow

So it’s not because of the low paying jobs or absurdly long working hours/days?

ok……….

We Japanese tend to look at a lot factors 

Anytime I hear a statement that starts with "we Japanese," I tune out. Opinions are fine, but how can one person speak for 120 million others?

Once again we see statistics enlisted in support of a position when they could just as easily infer something different. Predicting the future is necessarily fraught with uncertainty and the number of marriages and births had been declining steadily for many years, without any assistance from Covid. Anomalously, the number of marriages actually increased in 2019 and researchers, extrapolating from that data, may have inferred that the future was looking rosier. Not saying that’s what happened here and that the future forecasts were overly optimistic, but it illustrates the inexact nature of predictive science.

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00759/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boom#/media/File%3A日本の出生数と出生率1900-2010.jpg

I think it is the generation change.

Yea.

COVID and money issues are just an excuse for young ladies that prefer to be independent. It is totally bothersome for them to get married, and take care of a baby when there are many things that they can enjoy with friends, etc.

Money ? Excuses? I didnt hear the young ladies swear theyre gonna be "reviewing" "urging" "considering" or "debating" ?

The girls that will want to be mothers and have a husband they will definitely do that and find an appropriate partner.

You said it, and neverforget, that appropriate husband could be a wife.

Yup, thanks for the input, Zorro

No you4 don't say, you mean having everyone that possibly can work from home alone wasn't a good way to meet people?

You mean eat , don't talk and leave a restaurant it's conducive to building a possible relationship?

I mean how would have guessed, I mean all those computers warriors in mom's basement all have such active dating lives, right?

Heck even those trying have been having a hard time because of rules, my daughter's fiance is basically confined to base outside of on duty hours, try arranging a wedding when the groom and bride can barely meet, the families can't get together with them to even make plans.

My sister-in-law has been working from home for nearly 2 years, unmarried Livin with her mom, no parties, no office, no events, no boyfriend, no chance to even meet someone.

Hey working from home is great if you are already married, but in Japan meeting a prospective partner is often at work, school or fr friends introducing someone from their wor6or school.

Redstorm

Today 02:12 pm JST

68 million workers with 13 million office workers and not all of them working from home, about 15% are.

Yep and the vast majority are young because the old oyaji can barely operate a regular PC in office.

All the the people I know working from home are under 35, the old guys wonder how they can fax from home if they have to work from home.

Marriage rates were way down before the pandemic. Young people just cannot afford to get married and have kids. That is, they're not paid much. I thought that Kishida's "new capitalism" was supposed to fix that. Well, we'll see.

Your daughter and her fiance could request permission for marriage if they really want to. SDF or US base? She can visit on base.

> The marriage rates have been falling for decades.

No not during covid the SDF are all on a form of lockdown he has been given permission a few times requiring PCR before returning so needs to duties and that means being able to do it all within the time off.

I know you like to be right but in this case sorry it is my daughter my future son-in-law and she has been with him since first year university planning on marriage once she completed her master's.

So now go and tell me I am wrong again and my own family doesn't know anything.

It’s all about the money (or lack of it) honey!

I'm probably simplifying this too much, but: 243,000 / 150,000 = 1.63 babies per woman while Japan's fertility rate is currently 1.36. The fertility rate does cover a certain period in life for each woman, but still, this looks pretty optimistic.

The fertility rate is measured across all women of childbearing years in society.

But the fertility rate of married women is higher than it is for unmarried ones (and thus higher than the total fertility rate which includes both). So its probably accurate that reduction in expected births due to a drop in the number of marriages (ie the number of females moving into a cohort with a higher fertility rate than average) would be higher like that.

It is best to be married and found a family than unmarried living alone and doing nothing with your life then dying alone.

Cammanteer,if you do like Japan leave,you criticize the US ,you never lived there,you can be miserable anywhere,maybe in your native country,but choose to live in Japan

Your daughter is planning her marriage after she completes her master's and not because she could not marry. Which is now different than you posted when you said

Yep you have to have the last word.

Did it ever occur to you she graduated after covid started?

Yeah simple logic!

It is best to be married and found a family than unmarried living alone and doing nothing with your life then dying alone.

Ravinder, that is not true for everyone. A previous study has shown that while men were either the same level of happy or happier after marriage, women's happiness on the whole tended to decrease after marriage. So some might argue that it is actually better to be living alone (and doing whatever you want with your life) than living in a loveless marriage.

Whatever happened to "... be fruitful and multiply"?

"The researchers also attributed increased financial stress as among the factors linked to the projected decline."

I like how it takes a major study to figure this out, instead of it being obvious, which it is. Not only that, it's obvious the government is doing this to the nation, and praying that more women have babies and marriage rates go up won't change the facts that too many people are just flat out saying having kids is too expensive. Period. So, keep on with the monetary easing... keep avoiding the chance to bring up wages... keep increasing taxes... you'll get nothing but a far more vicious cycle than we're in now.

In Japan couples tend to get married after only knowing each other for a relatively short period of time compared to other countries. A lack of opportunities to socialise and spend time with people due to covid is almost definitely going to cause a short term drop in the number of people to decide to get married.

This also means more Japanese men are now able to spend their own money in any way they choose. And not having to hand over their entire monthly paychecks to the wife.

Oh, the horror.