A survey by Japan’s Children and Families Agency found that 35.1% of unmarried people aged 15–39 said they “don’t plan to marry.” In a separate survey, 64.7% of unmarried women and 60.7% of unmarried men said they “don’t want children.” On an information program covering these results, TV personality Hiromi said the government “absolutely has to take countermeasures,” while adding that “beyond that, it’s up to each individual.” On 5ch, the remark sparked a debate split between those pointing to financial problems and those citing the burden of family environment and relationships, with users arguing over just how much government policy can actually solve.
9/15 (Tue) 11:05
On the September 15 broadcast of Nippon TV’s morning show “DayDay.” (weekdays, 9:00 AM), the program covered survey results showing that 35.1% of young people (43,529 unmarried respondents aged 15–39) surveyed by the Children and Families Agency said they “don’t plan to marry,” while a separate survey found that 64.7% of unmarried women and 60.7% of unmarried men said they “don’t want children in the future.”
After watching footage of young people citing financial anxiety and other reasons, commentator and TV personality Hiromi speculated: “Given the state of things right now, I get why people like this — who have no intention of marrying — are showing up… But if they had a partner, they’d probably want to get married, I’d guess.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
3AnonymousSep 15, 2026 20:54
Watching an Osaka night-view video channel beats watching Peace-kun at Omiya Park on YouTube any day (Peace-kun is a famous solitary elephant whose livestream became a lonely-old-age meme).
4AnonymousSep 15, 2026 20:54
The government's too busy with immigration policy to care about actual Japanese people.
5AnonymousSep 15, 2026 20:55
Renovation companies have such a terrible reputation — where's the demand even coming from?
6AnonymousSep 15, 2026 20:56
They probably just answered randomly.
We don't even know if the survey was legit to begin with.
8AnonymousSep 15, 2026 20:57
One reason I don't think government policy has much to do with marriage or birth rates:
take South Korea — its birth rate is low not just at home, but among ethnic Koreans living abroad too.
9AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:00
People with that delinquent "yankee" mentality (Japanese slang for rowdy, rebellious youth) probably just can't understand this world.
They're basically a different species at this point.
69AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:24
Re: #9
Seriously, exactly.
Yankee types are basically wild animals — they'll spread their seed the second they get the chance.
Modern people run risk assessments and cost-benefit calculations on marriage.
Compared to the ease of living alone, the stress and risk of living with someone else feels scary.
There's less social pressure to marry than there used to be, and the media and social media bash "Japan is finished" so hard that having kids almost feels like abuse.
Maybe it's the kind, considerate people who end up avoiding marriage.
Meanwhile the delinquent types just keep multiplying, and the country turns into a "land of carnage" (a nod to the documentary about Kitakyushu delinquents nicknamed "Shura no Kuni").
10AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:01
So we're headed for a country full of sad, lonely old people?
11AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:01
So the government wants to control information suggesting life might actually be more fun without marriage.
12AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:01
Plenty of people get divorced too.
Honestly, if you're gonna get divorced, don't bother getting married in the first place.
13AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:01
It's already too late, idiots.
TV and celebrities are the ones who pushed us into this mess in the first place, idiots.
14AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:02
Well, that's what happens when you favor women way too much.
15AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:02
It's stopped being about the government or money at this point.
Growing up in a not-so-great home, or with parents who didn't get along, can kill your desire to marry too.
More and more people are just barely keeping their own lives together as it is.
16AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:03
What's the government supposed to do about it anyway? People are just riding the vibe way too much here.
19AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:04
If you're unpopular with the opposite sex, matchmaking activities ("konkatsu") are a humiliating grind where, at best, other unpopular people show interest in you — so unpopular guys with too much pride don't even want to try konkatsu in the first place.
25AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:05
There was a talk about how, out of a 100-year life, it's unreasonable by the laws of nature to spend the rest of it with someone you just happened to fall for during two or three years in your twenties.
The conclusion was: "It only works if you pile patience on patience, endurance on endurance, give up your freedom, and give up a lot of your wealth — money, time, peace of mind, all of it."
They also said your happiness index tanks the moment you're supporting a jobless partner, like a stay-at-home wife.
It's true that after about 10 years, most married couples have lost the love between them.
Maybe a life of gritting your teeth, staying irritated, and living together forever really is the unhappiest kind of life there is.
66AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:23
Re: #25
Sounds like you just want to believe that, lol.
28AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:07
Young people, go out there and have a proper youth already!!!
No money, you say??
Young people have fallen in love with no money in every era!!!
You bunch of morons!!!
68AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:24
Re: #28
Youth is being able to go on a date with nothing but a juice, a sweet bun, and a cup of instant noodles.
Once you're an adult, that doesn't fly anymore.
Why can't this cost-performance/time-performance-obsessed generation see that?
44AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:14
Single people are basically traitors to the nation and should be taxed heavily!
Otherwise the poor souls who got married for their country will never get their due!
79AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:28
Re: #44
We're already taxed, and we're already supporting some stranger's stay-at-home wife too.
46AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:15
Non-regular workers can't afford to get married anyway.
48AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:16
Re: #46
You need a healthy body to get conscripted too, y'know.
So go get married and work for the good of the country, why don'tcha.
67AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:24
Today this old fart had drinks with an acquaintance in his 80s, and marriage came up.
Then and now, marriage is something you can't pull off without making up your mind to take the plunge.
Back then it was easier to take that plunge, since everyone got married — it was a universal-marriage kind of society.
But even with all that social pressure pushing them along, plenty of couples still didn't work out — so you could say people today are actually thinking about relationships more seriously.
70AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:24
Re: #67
Yeah, and once you're married everyone praises you for doing it "for the country," right?
72AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:25
The government should just forcibly marry off men and women once they hit a certain age.
If you don't like that, find someone and get married before it comes to that.
75AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:27
Re: #72
Hooray for conscription!
Let's work for the good of the country!
81AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:28
My takeaway from talking with my 80-something acquaintance today is that people these days just don't try to form deep relationships with others.
Marriage isn't going to work unless you seriously commit to facing another person.
Maybe something more like the Heian-era nobility's "commuting marriage" — where husband and wife lived apart and he just visited — would actually suit modern people better.
84AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:30
Re: #81
Well, back then, relying on relatives when you were in trouble WAS the social safety net.
You don't need that these days.
86AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:31
Re: #1
They have no idea what's actually causing the declining birthrate.
The declining birthrate is exactly the kind of problem the government can't fix — that's precisely why it's happening in every country.
93AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:33
Re: #86
You could also say it won't get solved as long as there are people using the declining birthrate for political gain.
94AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:35
Re: #68
Seriously, exactly.
For poor people, youth is the only weapon they have for dating…
And dating is the best way to get comfortable with the opposite sex…
Marriage is just riding that momentum — or rather, the natural flow of things.
100AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:36
Re: #94
That kind of cheap-looking date only worked because there was no social media back then.
These days, if you can't post it, it doesn't count as a real date.
114AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:41
In this day and age, there's no way you can force people into marriage and child-rearing.
That said, if there are no kids, the country dies out.
So what do you do? Give single people the right to live freely at their own pace — in exchange for paying noticeably higher taxes.
Then give married, child-raising households serious, thorough preferential treatment.
That's really the only way.
The idea being: let's raise our precious children as a whole nation, and hopefully that leads to more marriages — and in turn, more kids.
119AnonymousSep 15, 2026 21:42
Re: #114
Married people are the ones who get protected by society, right?
It's single people who are the real independent adults.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This figure comes from a Children and Families Agency survey of 43,529 unmarried people aged 15–39, of whom 35.1% said they “don’t plan to marry.” The share who don’t want children (64.7% of unmarried women, 60.7% of unmarried men) comes from a separate survey with a different sample and different questions, so the two figures shouldn’t simply be added together. On the thread, opinions split between those citing money problems and those citing family environment or a general aversion to the burden of living with another person — with some pointing to South Korea, where even ethnic Koreans living abroad have low birth rates, as evidence that “government policy alone won’t fix this.” Meanwhile, the more extreme proposals — like taxing single people more heavily or effectively forcing marriage — mostly played out as irony, praising taxes and conscription as being “for the good of the country,” more satire than genuine policy proposals.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “Hiromi speaks candidly on survey showing 3 in 10 young people “don’t plan to marry”: “The government absolutely has to take countermeasures,” “but beyond that, it’s up to each individual”.”
