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The story
In the first large-scale survey of its kind, Japan’s Children and Families Agency polled 100,000 young people aged 15 to 39 and found that 35.1% of unmarried respondents — roughly one in three — said they “don’t intend to marry.” When the results were reported on TBS’s talk show “Gogosma” on the 1st, commentator Suzuki Sarina offered her take: “People have gotten too affluent — they’re plenty happy even without romance.” On 5channel’s Entertainment & Sports News+ board, that “too affluent to marry” framing drew a wave of pushback, with posters firing back things like “We’re not affluent — we’re getting poorer by the day.” Opinions split over whether the real reason people aren’t marrying is a lack of financial breathing room or a shift in values.
Suzuki Sarina on survey showing 35.1% of young people “don’t intend to marry”: “They’ve gotten too affluent, plenty happy even without romance…”
On the TBS variety/info show “Gogosma — GO GO! Smile!” (weekdays, 1:55 PM), which aired on the 1st, it was reported that the Children and Families Agency’s first large-scale survey of young people found that roughly one in three unmarried young people believe they “don’t intend to marry.”
Of the 100,000 young people aged 15 to 39 surveyed, 35.1% answered that they “don’t intend to marry.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Affluence isn't just about money.
She probably means the kind of richness where you can throw yourself into supporting your favorite idol/character (oshikatsu) — spiritual wealth.
And honestly, hasn't every generation always complained about having no money?
If your parents are middle-class and soft on their kids, you can freeload at home as a grown "kidult" (kodo-oji/kodo-oba — lit. "child-uncle/child-aunt," slang for adults still living off their parents) and get by fine even on ¥200,000 a month as a temp worker.
There are tens of thousands of people in Japan right now happily doing that and enjoying their oshikatsu (fan/idol support activities) on the side!
So isn't that actually a pretty affluent life, even on a low income? lol
The desire to marry disappeared because the garbage media (masugomi) has divided everyone.
Its conclusion: "It only works if you pile patience on patience, endurance on endurance, give up your freedom, and throw away a lot of richness — money, time, mental well-being, and more."
It also said your happiness index tanks the moment you're supporting a jobless partner, like a stay-at-home spouse.
It's true that after 10 years, most married couples have lost the love between them.
A life where you have to live together forever while gritting your teeth and irritated might really be the unhappiest kind of life.
That's deep. In that sense, maybe the old concubine system actually made some sense.
So of course free riders show up — people who never marry or raise kids.
Either cut benefits for people who didn't raise children, or boost them for people who did.
Though for you guys, you don't even have a partner to begin with, financial issues aside.
Most young people have never had money, in any era.
Are you okay?
Can't get married.
Can't buy a house.
Can't even own a car.
A triple curse.
How could you even know whether you want to marry or not when you don't have a partner in the first place…
>Marriage is supposed to be something you do because you've fallen hopelessly for someone and just have to spend your life with them, right?
You're way too love-brained.
That idea has only been trendy in Japan for the last 50-60 years, tops.
Dating isn't the risky part — marriage is basically a religion.
Barely anyone genuinely wants to do it of their own free will.
In the Meiji era, Japan imported patriarchy from Britain.
The Beatles' George Harrison ordered his wife to stay home and be a housewife, she hated it, and Eric Clapton ended up stealing her from him lol
Background and Points of Debate
This survey by the Children and Families Agency is the government’s first large-scale attempt to gauge young people’s attitudes toward marriage, and financial circumstances are reportedly the most commonly cited reason for not marrying. The thread’s split in opinion centers on a clash between the view Suzuki Sarina’s comment reflects — that “spiritual richness” matters more — and the counterargument that “material living standards are actually getting worse.” Posters also pointed out that Japan was only a “universal marriage society” for roughly 20 years, from the 1950s-60s through around 1975; that during the Edo period, it was normal for anyone besides the eldest son to remain unmarried; and that divorce was actually more common in the Meiji era and prewar years than it is today. Neither the original article nor the TV segment mentioned the view that the very image of “marriage as a lifelong partnership” is a relatively recent idea, one popularized through postwar television and film — worth keeping in mind, since simply framing the drift away from marriage as “a uniquely recent phenomenon” risks missing the bigger picture.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (Entertainment & Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] 35.1% of Young People ‘Don’t Intend to Marry’ — Suzuki Sarina on Survey Results: ‘They’ve Gotten Too Affluent, Plenty Happy Even Without Romance…’“.
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