A survey by IBJ, one of Japan’s largest matchmaking agencies, found that the number of marriages among people aged 50 and over hit an all-time high of 1,389 in 2025 — roughly four times the 2017 figure over the past eight years. Thread reactions ranged from cynical jabs like “sounds like a help-wanted ad for elder care” to pragmatic takes on combining pensions or securing a caregiver, plus raw firsthand accounts involving foreign brides — a candid look at the reality of senior matchmaking.
Have you ever thought about finding a new partner in the second half of your life?
According to a survey recently released by the IBJ Institute for the Future of Marriage, run by IBJ Inc. (Shinjuku, Tokyo), which operates a network of matchmaking agencies, the number of marriages among people aged 50 and over reached an all-time high of 1,389 in 2025 — roughly four times the figure from 2017, eight years earlier.
The survey covered 1,389 men and women aged 50 and over (520 women, 869 men) who left IBJ’s affiliated matchmaking agency network in 2025 after successfully getting married.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
boils down to
"recruiting a caretaker for old age"
and "these days you can't get by unless you combine two pensions"
and "you can't rent an apartment if you're single"
That's basically the three reasons, right?
(´・∀・｀)
Re: #24 ← this is basically what it comes down to
One pension isn't enough to live on
but two pensions together might work
Even if "weak men" (low-status, low-income guys) try hard, women reject them anyway, so spending money on women is a waste
You're better off just eating something tasty instead
If a woman's going to nag you about splitting the bill, treat yourself to something a bit pricier solo
Good women get snapped up by handsome or rich guys anyway, so there's no point in "weak men" even bothering to try with women in the first place
Playing house?
– To rent an apartment
– To combine pensions
– To have a caregiver
Isn't this just people whose kids are already grown and are now single? That's senior matchmaking for you.
There are people who get divorced once the kids are grown up, right? Especially cheating husbands — they never have trouble finding someone new.
If nursing-care issues come up, they'd probably just bolt.
I think you can
Just try making a move first
should go for men in their 50s, you know
When the kid born from that turns 40 or 50,
for some reason they end up wildly successful lol
Whereas kids born to parents in their teens or 20s
turn out no good later in life lol
No way, no way
It's already well established that aged sperm is worse quality than aged eggs
It's probably for the money or a residency visa
I mean, what's wrong with that?
If you can live supporting each other with someone of the same sex without a sexual relationship, that's a valid choice too
To have someone take care of you
A tea-drinking buddy.
Everyday conversation.
Someone to bicker with occasionally.
Folks like this can't use the internet at all — they only watch terrestrial TV.
Old folks who can use the internet are out there binge-watching YouTube like everyone else.
It's nice living as a man and woman together since you can split the roles
Ever heard of the "late-life bride business" (women who marry elderly men chiefly for the inheritance)?
And what's the old guy supposed to do, then?
A Don Juan? (a womanizer)
If they'd shown some consideration when young — like bringing back souvenirs from trips to hand out to neighbors — people would feel like helping them out when they're struggling in old age
But guys who never show that kind of consideration, when they fall ill in old age and need help, there's no good soul around who's going to bother
It's laughable that lifelong bachelors, with zero self-awareness, go around trying to marry women in their twenties
That's exactly why divorced men are more popular and can pull off a kind of staggered polygamy
Elderly single men are shockingly self-centered, seriously
And if on top of that they're also chauvinistic, marriage is pretty much impossible
Hometown: a rural village in Myanmar
Education: dropped out of junior high
Occupation: farming (helping out at home)
Special skill: weaving baskets from bamboo
Communication: doesn't speak Japanese, doesn't speak English
Marriage terms: a 500,000 yen betrothal gift plus a 30,000 yen monthly allowance after marriage (average monthly income in a rural Myanmar village is only about 15,000 yen)
What do you all think about marrying a girl like this?
You'll get taken advantage of and squeezed dry
People over there don't see it as marriage — they see it as a business transaction
Probably
it's just easier being with a woman your own age who'll laugh and say, "Come on, you're already an old man, lol"
I want a wife around 37 and I want a kid
Honestly, I don't even need a wife — I just want a kid who shares my blood
Think I can pull off getting married?
Depends on her face, hair, and figure
Background and Key Points
IBJ (Iwaki Bridal, ticker 6071) is one of Japan’s largest matchmaking-agency networks, and it publishes these figures itself, so the “1,389 marriages in 2025” figure describes only people who left IBJ-affiliated agencies engaged, not a national statistic — Japan’s actual marriage count nationwide has been falling for decades and hit a record low near 500,000 in recent years. The pension math referenced in the thread is real: the basic national pension (kokumin nenkin) alone pays only around 65,000 yen a month, well below what’s needed to live alone, which is why combining two pensions matters. The housing point is also grounded in fact — Japanese landlords routinely refuse to rent to single elderly tenants for fear of an unwitnessed death (kodokushi) and the lack of a guarantor, so marriage functions as a practical fix for a real gap in the rental market, not just a joke.
The thread’s actual disagreement isn’t over whether these marriages are transactional — nearly everyone agrees they are — but over whether that’s shameful or sensible. Posters mocking it as “recruiting a caregiver” sit against others treating pension-splitting, rent access, and companionship as legitimate, unsentimental reasons to marry.
One thing worth flagging for outside readers: post 76 talks about same-sex couples marrying “once it’s established” — same-sex marriage is not legally recognized nationwide in Japan; only a patchwork of municipal partnership certificates exists, which don’t carry inheritance or pension rights. That distinction is the kind of detail the thread glosses over but matters for understanding why elderly same-sex couples can’t yet use marriage the way the thread describes.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Marriage] Marriages Among Singles Over 50 Quadruple in 8 Years — What’s Behind the Senior Matchmaking Boom?“.