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The story
According to a survey reported by Toyo Keizai Online, roughly one in three young people say they’re refusing to marry because they don’t want to lose their free time. The original article argues that more troubling than this figure is the underlying spread of a mindset that simply can’t trust other people. On 5ch, the topic sparked discussion of anxieties about having no one to act as a guarantor in old age, along with the very real economic burdens of marriage — mortgages, education costs — while the thread split between people arguing for a “singles tax” and others firing back that it’s just parents shifting the blame onto single people.
Published: 2026/09/05 07:15
Takashi Kimura — Columnist, Relationship Consultant, TV Commentator
INDEX
Source: toyokeizai.net / Read the original article here
What people said
By the time you're old and finally have free time and actually want to get married, it's already too late.
Re: #4
But once you get married, your spouse's relatives become a huge hassle. If they're the nagging type, it's the worst.
But once you get married, your spouse's relatives become a huge hassle. If they're the nagging type, it's the worst.
What are you gonna do when you're old? You need a guarantor to be hospitalized, you need a guarantor to rent an apartment. Are you seriously gonna ask your parents or siblings to be your guarantor at your age?
Re: #21
By the time you're old, your parents will be dead, and your siblings will be elderly themselves and ineligible to be guarantors anyway.
By the time you're old, your parents will be dead, and your siblings will be elderly themselves and ineligible to be guarantors anyway.
Re: #21
Well, pretty much anyone could end up in this same situation, so the government and society will be forced to deal with it eventually — it's not that big a deal.
I'm more worried about people with kids who took out reckless loans and are still stuck with debt hanging over them until they're 70. There's no way they'll stay healthy forever.
Well, pretty much anyone could end up in this same situation, so the government and society will be forced to deal with it eventually — it's not that big a deal.
I'm more worried about people with kids who took out reckless loans and are still stuck with debt hanging over them until they're 70. There's no way they'll stay healthy forever.
Re: #21
There have long been companies that'll act as your guarantor for hospital admission or apartment contracts — are you out of the loop?
Also, what's so bad about having your parents or siblings be your guarantor at your age?
It's way lamer for a grown adult to only be able to ask their own kid to be their guarantor.
There have long been companies that'll act as your guarantor for hospital admission or apartment contracts — are you out of the loop?
Also, what's so bad about having your parents or siblings be your guarantor at your age?
It's way lamer for a grown adult to only be able to ask their own kid to be their guarantor.
You're not gonna do anything meaningful with all that 'freedom' anyway, so just go find yourself a partner already.
Re: #35
You're not gonna have some amazing marriage even if you find a partner, so just go enjoy the present already.
You're not gonna have some amazing marriage even if you find a partner, so just go enjoy the present already.
Being unmarried is the best. Went to Kura Sushi with my boyfriend after work yesterday, put a stuffed animal on the table, and played with it like a doll.
Re: #39
At least go to a non-conveyor-belt sushi place lol
At least go to a non-conveyor-belt sushi place lol
People with kids should do some soul-searching. The dream house, the flashy Alphard (a status-symbol minivan) for appearances, 'you're not a real adult until you're married' — you got talked into marriage by social pressure, and what did you get? A 30-million-yen mortgage? Another 30 million yen to put one kid through college?
End result: a household ledger buried in debt. Face the reality that you were groomed into becoming a fully-fledged slave of this exploitative, black-hearted society.
In this unequal, exploitative society, it would be too tragic to watch if it drove someone to even take their own child's life.
End result: a household ledger buried in debt. Face the reality that you were groomed into becoming a fully-fledged slave of this exploitative, black-hearted society.
In this unequal, exploitative society, it would be too tragic to watch if it drove someone to even take their own child's life.
Re: #51 Re: #1
The value of a currency is determined by the economic strength of the country that issues it.
And the source of a country's economic strength is the supply and demand generated within it.
Supply and demand aren't split between different people — every single person contains both supply and demand within themselves.
Workers work harder to afford better things, and that's what grows both supply and demand, developing the national economy.
Single people just stuffing money into NISA accounts (Japan's tax-free investment scheme) aren't contributing to Japan's economic growth at all — in fact, they're part of what's weakening the yen.
The value of a currency is determined by the economic strength of the country that issues it.
And the source of a country's economic strength is the supply and demand generated within it.
Supply and demand aren't split between different people — every single person contains both supply and demand within themselves.
Workers work harder to afford better things, and that's what grows both supply and demand, developing the national economy.
Single people just stuffing money into NISA accounts (Japan's tax-free investment scheme) aren't contributing to Japan's economic growth at all — in fact, they're part of what's weakening the yen.
I get it. I really get it. But young people don't realize their bodies will decline — your eyesight goes, your focus goes. By the time you realize 'oh crap,' it's already too late (a play on the meme 'toki sude ni oshi' — 'already too late' — which puns on the word for sushi).
Re: #68
Just like stamping your seal on a loan contract means you're taking final responsibility, marrying that wife of yours was your responsibility.
Re: #61
20s: You can get by without sleep~
30s: You slowly start gaining weight and losing hair — this is around when checkups start flagging things
40s: Your stamina completely stops recovering — this is when thorough exams start becoming necessary
50s: You're already falling apart, just limping along
It's sad, but this is simply the law of nature for us as living creatures.
Just like stamping your seal on a loan contract means you're taking final responsibility, marrying that wife of yours was your responsibility.
Re: #61
20s: You can get by without sleep~
30s: You slowly start gaining weight and losing hair — this is around when checkups start flagging things
40s: Your stamina completely stops recovering — this is when thorough exams start becoming necessary
50s: You're already falling apart, just limping along
It's sad, but this is simply the law of nature for us as living creatures.
I've spent my whole life in environments with no women around, so to me women just look like some undiscovered species from an unknown ecosystem.
Re: #84
That's actually spot on. Better not to assume they're the same species as us (biologically speaking that's a wildly contradictory thing to say lol)
That's actually spot on. Better not to assume they're the same species as us (biologically speaking that's a wildly contradictory thing to say lol)
Put pathetic middle-aged people doing marriage-hunting after they're already old into school textbooks as a cautionary tale.
Re: #96
We need to teach people that once you're old, it should be 'shukatsu' (end-of-life planning) instead of 'konkatsu' (marriage hunting) — end-of-life prep is hard enough for single people as it is.
We need to teach people that once you're old, it should be 'shukatsu' (end-of-life planning) instead of 'konkatsu' (marriage hunting) — end-of-life prep is hard enough for single people as it is.
I get it when today's young people say these are the reasons they won't or can't get married. But when people in their 40s and 50s say the same thing, I can't help but think — didn't you just fail to get married?
Re: #112
That generation already grew up in the era of gender equality, so it's not that strange. If men and women are equal, there's no real benefit to marriage anyway.
That generation already grew up in the era of gender equality, so it's not that strange. If men and women are equal, there's no real benefit to marriage anyway.
Compared to the distant past, the downsides of staying single and childless have shrunk. Entertainment and solo-lifestyle culture have developed so much that the old custom of dating someone you don't even like just to keep up appearances has disappeared. You can't slap some huge penalty on being single and childless, you can't restrict women's education and careers, and restricting adult internet access is even more out of the question — there's just no move left to make. Whatever you try, you just end up like Ceaușescu (Romania's dictator, infamous for his brutal pro-birth policies).
Re: #120
Just slap a singles tax that takes half their annual income.
Just slap a singles tax that takes half their annual income.
Re: #121
For the ladies (a slightly mocking slang term for women): if you grew up being told 'find a rich guy and marry him while you're young, that's your happiness,' the times have completely changed on you since then.
The husband you expected to be your personal ATM has his salary capped out, you end up having to go work too, car and house loans get hit by rising prices on top of it, you get roped into a joint loan as a co-guarantor, and once you realize married life is way harder than you imagined, you start screaming 'SINGLES TAX!' 😠
For the ladies (a slightly mocking slang term for women): if you grew up being told 'find a rich guy and marry him while you're young, that's your happiness,' the times have completely changed on you since then.
The husband you expected to be your personal ATM has his salary capped out, you end up having to go work too, car and house loans get hit by rising prices on top of it, you get roped into a joint loan as a co-guarantor, and once you realize married life is way harder than you imagined, you start screaming 'SINGLES TAX!' 😠
Re: #121
You can't collect it from low-income people or people with disabilities. And what about people with developmental disorders? What about people with incurable diseases? What about kids who grew up as caregivers for a disabled sibling? Basically, rich men are mostly already married with kids, and if you look into it, quite a few high-income women turn out to be on the developmental-disorder spectrum. Even if you wanted to collect the tax, there aren't many people you actually could collect it from.
You can't collect it from low-income people or people with disabilities. And what about people with developmental disorders? What about people with incurable diseases? What about kids who grew up as caregivers for a disabled sibling? Basically, rich men are mostly already married with kids, and if you look into it, quite a few high-income women turn out to be on the developmental-disorder spectrum. Even if you wanted to collect the tax, there aren't many people you actually could collect it from.
I mean, if you drill gender equality into people and then make men and women compete against each other in society, women stop looking like 'a fragile thing to protect' to men and start looking like 'an enemy to be defeated.' And in a free-love society like this, if men stop pursuing women, of course the number of singles is going to keep rising.
Re: #136
Yeah, but even with gender equality, women's baseline expectation is still 'protect me! provide for me!' That's exactly why there's such a huge rift between men and women.
Yeah, but even with gender equality, women's baseline expectation is still 'protect me! provide for me!' That's exactly why there's such a huge rift between men and women.
These are young people who don't trust others, so I actually think there's hope.
Re: #140
I mean, it really feels like they're just following in the footsteps of us internet folks. What a mess — should we restrict internet access or something?
I mean, it really feels like they're just following in the footsteps of us internet folks. What a mess — should we restrict internet access or something?
But it'd make sense to jack up the singles tax and funnel that money straight into childcare support.
Re: #157
Makes sense — tax it so hard that you literally can't survive without getting married. Then everyone will marry just to survive.
Of course, gender equality collapses in the process.
Makes sense — tax it so hard that you literally can't survive without getting married. Then everyone will marry just to survive.
Of course, gender equality collapses in the process.
Re: #160
It's the perfect fix for the declining birthrate. If you don't want to pay it, just get married and have kids. And if you still don't want to, then work several times harder than married people, earn a ton, and pay the singles tax. This whole 'as long as I'm fine, whatever' mindset is just people wanting to coast through life.
It's the perfect fix for the declining birthrate. If you don't want to pay it, just get married and have kids. And if you still don't want to, then work several times harder than married people, earn a ton, and pay the singles tax. This whole 'as long as I'm fine, whatever' mindset is just people wanting to coast through life.
Re: #160
Just because people with kids caved to social peer pressure, got married, and now their lives are tough, taking that anger out on single people is a huge case of misdirected blame (lol)
Just because people with kids caved to social peer pressure, got married, and now their lives are tough, taking that anger out on single people is a huge case of misdirected blame (lol)
Looks like the singles tax idea is really getting to these guys. This overreaction makes it crystal clear.
Re: #181
People with kids should do some soul-searching. The dream house, the flashy Alphard (a status-symbol minivan) for appearances, 'you're not a real adult until you're married' — you got talked into marriage by social pressure, and what did you get? A 30-million-yen mortgage? Another 30 million yen to put one kid through college?
End result: a household ledger buried in debt. Face the reality that you were groomed into becoming a fully-fledged slave of this exploitative, black-hearted society.
In this unequal, exploitative society, it would be too tragic to watch if it drove someone to even take their own child's life.
People with kids should do some soul-searching. The dream house, the flashy Alphard (a status-symbol minivan) for appearances, 'you're not a real adult until you're married' — you got talked into marriage by social pressure, and what did you get? A 30-million-yen mortgage? Another 30 million yen to put one kid through college?
End result: a household ledger buried in debt. Face the reality that you were groomed into becoming a fully-fledged slave of this exploitative, black-hearted society.
In this unequal, exploitative society, it would be too tragic to watch if it drove someone to even take their own child's life.
Background and key points of this discussion
Behind the phrase “refusing to marry” lies not just the “loss of free time” the original Toyo Keizai article points to, but a deeper factor: a general distrust of other people. On the thread, the issue of guarantors in old age (for hospital admission and renting an apartment) came up again and again — but this is actually a practical matter that private identity-guarantor companies already handle, and choosing not to rely on family for this is far from unusual. Meanwhile, the “singles tax” isn’t an actual tax policy; it’s a catchphrase-level idea that tends to get conflated with existing debates over social insurance contributions like Japan’s child-rearing support levy, and the thread itself was split right down the middle on it. There were also posts linking gender-equality rankings (like the WEF’s) to “women not working,” but that’s a common misunderstanding — those rankings measure representation gaps in politics and the economy, not simply employment rate.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “‘I’ll Lose My Free Time’: Behind the Survey Showing About 1 in 3 Young People ‘Refuse to Marry’… The Danger of ‘Not Being Able to Trust Others’ Is More Serious Than the Rise in Unmarried People.”
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