Japanese men increasingly avoid marriage

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-01-17 16:48

Article here. Excerpt:

'In Japan, the number of men and women choosing to marry later in life is on the increase and has reached a figure that can no longer be ignored. When it comes to the Japanese male demography, just why are so many choosing the single life? My Navi News asked 300 of its male readers the following question:

“Have you ever thought ‘Marriage isn’t for me’ or ‘I prefer the life of bachelorhood’?”

The results obtained were a little on the unexpected side:

Yes: 39.7%
No: 60.3%
...
The total percentage of men that replied “marriage isn’t for me” or “I prefer the life of bachelorhood” was a whopping 39.7%! This figure exceeds the percentage of female readers that replied “yes” to the same set of questions. When it comes to the single men out there, the heavy burden of providing not only financially but also emotionally for the family makes many think twice about marriage.'

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There's this, too: Japanese women can divorce their husbands at any time simply by filing a form at the local gov't office. At that point, they're divorced. It's that easy. Read: http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=616&catid=18:

'The divorce process is pretty simple and straight forward and provides for alimony and child support. Ninety percent of divorces are obtained through mutual agreement sanctioned by filing out and signing a form at a local government office.
...
New divorce laws in 2007 give a divorced wife the right to 50 percent of husband’s company pension. Many older and middle aged women who wanted divorces reportedly decided to stay in unhappy marriages and wait until the law went into effect before seeking a divorce.
...
Under the Civil Code in Japan, parental rights are given to one member of a divorced couple, whereas it is common in Western countries for former couples to bring up their children jointly. ... In Japan the ex-wife gets the children 80 to 90 percent of the time. Japan’s tradition of sole-custody divorce typically favors mothers and results in children being cut off from their fathers, during childhood if not forever. Japanese family courts in recent years have begun issuing joint custody orders, but do not effectively enforce them. There are no legal penalties for noncompliance.
...
The parent who does not get custody has almost no rights concerning their children and often times is able to see their kids. There are no provisions in the Civil Code referring to the visitation rights of parents who does not live with the children. When visitation is allowed it is often limited to once a month.

Mothers win 90 percent of court decision concerning custody. Some ex-wives are insistent that their ex-husbands never see their children again. Even when a court decides that husband can see the children once a month the ex-wife can refuse to comply and not suffer consequences for it.'

Really, need I go further? As bad as it is in the US, Canada, etc., it seems much worse in Japan. Why any man would marry under these conditions is utterly beyond me.

But finally, there's this: Kids are expensive, very much so in Japan. And this is a nation w/ abt. 40% of the pop'n of the US on about 9/10 the land mass of California. Aside even from men's lack of rights around their kids, property, income, etc., during and after marriage, if you lived in such a crowded place (been there-- yeah, it's crowded!), wouldn't you think twice before adding to the mass of humanity all around you?

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2013-01-17 18:20