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The story
A woman’s post reading “I wish someone had told me sooner that marriage and childbirth get harder once you hit your late 30s” went viral on a thread in 5ch’s “Livegalileo” (a general live-commentary board). Commenters brought up singer Koda Kumi, who was once publicly slammed for making a similar remark, with some saying sarcastically “she said it and people just attacked her for it,” while others argued this kind of information should really come from family. Meanwhile, some pointed out that the marriage rate for men in their 30s is already around 50%, questioning why late marriage gets framed as a women-only issue.
What people said
This was going on way before that.
I sometimes go on Girls Channel and give advice like "women are happier staying single" and "men are trash, don't bother marrying one." I'm not lying, so it's fine, right? 🤔
Same with the "Christmas cake theory" (a 1990s saying likening women past 25 to unsold Christmas cake) — stuff old folks just took for granted back then.
🦉 How to undo a bra hook 🦉
Bet a lot of people here don't even know that one. Not really in a position to call others clueless.
Woman: "Uh… can't hear you, can't hear you."
That's basically how it really goes.
Too busy with work every day to even see grandma.
Yeah, that's basically it.
I got an earful from relatives at a funeral. You're bound to hear something whenever relatives gather, whether it's New Year's or a funeral. Grandma, uncles, aunts — they'll definitely say something.
Do you know how to undo a bra hook?
Artificial wombs are about to hit the market, so anyone with money will just have kids even in old age.
Artificial wombs won't work for old women even so — donor sperm or not, there's no way for a woman that age to have her own biological child.
Stop.
Just stop, please.
That's because women who live a normal life end up getting married…
Men who live a normal life end up getting married too, you know.
The marriage rate for men in their 30s is already down to half these days.
Men are the ones being evaluated, so we know full well that once you hit 35 or so, you're basically written off. Women, though, seem to think all the attention they got when young will last forever. It's the same with men's physical stamina — it declines and you don't notice until it's already happened, you just can't tell in advance.
Once you start living alone, you stop having people around you for long stretches of time — you go from being surrounded by family to being around only coworkers.
Yeah, that's exactly how the Heisei era (1989–2019) felt.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The “Christmas cake theory” mentioned in the thread is a phrase from the 1990s that crudely compared a woman’s “marriageable age” to unsold Christmas cake, and it has been brought up again and again in debates over attitudes toward the ideal age for marriage and childbirth ever since. Medically, it’s well established that egg count and quality decline with age, and the statistical probability of natural conception drops after the late 30s — but exactly when and from whom this knowledge should be passed on varies greatly depending on family environment and upbringing, so it’s not something that can be reduced to simple blame based solely on one person saying “I didn’t know.” The thread also brought up Koda Kumi’s past remarks and the “marriage rate among men in their 30s,” but it’s easy to overlook that marriage rate is the result of social choices, whereas declining fertility is a biological change tied to age — two issues that really should be discussed on separate terms.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Livegalileo) thread “[Sad News] Woman: “I wish someone had told me sooner that marriage and childbirth get harder once you hit your late 30s”.”
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