Letter: Why there’s a mismatch in Japan’s marriage market

As Leo Lewis points out, the Japanese government has focused on the wrong part of the fertility problem (“Marriage holds key to reversing relentless fall in Japan’s birth rate”, Opinion, March 15).

Tackling the marriage market problem is much more about “social- engineering”. The 16th Japanese National Fertility Survey provides some answers.

It is not the economic costs of marriage that is the barrier. There are specific Japanese cultural issues. There is a mismatch in the marriage market.

Around 80 per cent of young men and women are willing to marry. However women’s expectations for their future husbands are rising with increased education.

At university, females outnumber men. Among male graduates, 80 per cent will marry someone with a lower educational level. On the other hand, 80 per cent of female graduates marry graduates. This has two knock-on effects.

For female graduates there are not enough male graduates to go around. For men without a college degree there is less chance of finding a partner.

There is a group of young adults, particularly men, who profess to have no interest in looking for sex and romantic relationships. They have been nicknamed “herbivores”. This is not a small group. A quarter of Japanese men and women in the age group 18-39 are virgins. To be precise, they have had no heterosexual sex. They tend to be from lower socio-economic groups. As Lewis points out, to have children born out of wedlock is very rare.

For these highly qualified women other societal norms get in the way. Only 10 per cent of couples cohabit before getting married. There is no way to “try” marriage, because of those social norms. The risk of a “mistake” is higher.

Even today, Japanese law still requires couples to use only one name. It does not specify whose; 90 per cent choose to use the man’s name. For female graduates on a career path giving up their name can be a major issue. Family tradition says that it is the role of the wife of the eldest son to take care of his parents. All conspire against marriage.

Professor John Bateson
Honorary Professor of Management
Bayes Business School,
Wendover, Buckinghamshire, UK