世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Following up on my recent report into Japanese demographics, in particular the lack of children, here is the results of a survey from the Meiji Yasuda Institute of Life and Wellness, Inc on the views of young Japanese (between the ages of 20 and 39) on marriage, birth and divorce. In February of this year they surveyed 759 people (I think it was by face-to-face interviews, but it is not clear from the survey) from the Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa areas (basically the capital city and surrounding prefectures). As the detailed demographics are important to this survey, I’ll present them within the main text.

This portion of the survey deals in part with middle-age divorce. This is the phenomenon whereby round about retirement, usually, marriages just break up because of many factors, including the husband now being nothing without work, or the wife no longer having peace and quiet now he’s home all day. This statistic may increase in a couple of years time as there is a change in the law coming through that will allow divorced women to get at their share of the ex-husband’s pension more easily.

Q5: Did you get married due to pregnancy? (Sample size=342, married people)

	Yes
Male 20 to 24 y.o., N=6	54.5%
Male 25 to 29 y.o., N=32	46.2%
Male 30 to 34 y.o., N=53	29.8%
Male 35 to 39 y.o., N=61	28.0%
Total male, N=152	33.5%
Female 20 to 24 y.o., N=10	50.0%
Female 25 to 29 y.o., N=46	38.0%
Female 30 to 34 y.o., N=65	28.0%
Female 35 to 39 y.o., N=69	4.0%
Total female, N=190	22.8%

Note that in Japan the Pill is not very popular, nor are condoms, I believe.

Other interesting figures surrounding marriage reasons was that overall 85% got married because they had found a partner they could marry; and almost thrice as many women felt they should get married because of their age (33% to 12%).

Q6: Do you think that thinking about having children after getting married is the normal way? (Sample size=342, married people)

	Yes
Male, N=152	83.5%
Female, N=190	90.7%

This question seems strangely phrased, but at first glance what I think it is getting at is actively trying to have a baby, but I remember when I was going out with my girlfriend as she was at the time and mentioning something about “Would you like to have kids?” as we were watching a child playing in a park and she got all flustered and told me that wasn’t the sort of question one should ask before marriage.

Across all age groups nine out of ten of the women agreed with the question, but for men only 77% of those in their twenties agreed, rising to eight in then for the early thirties, to nine in ten of those in their late thirties.

Q7: If one or one’s partner gets pregnant, should one get married? (Sample size=417, single people)

	All	Male N=232	Female N=185
I think one must marry	24.8%	30.4%	17.7%
I think one ought to marry	57.6%	56.7%	58.7%
I think either marrying or not marrying is fine	9.9%	6.1%	14.6%
I think one doesn’t need to marry	1.5%	1.6%	1.3%
Don’t know	6.2%	5.2%	7.6%

As men get older they more strongly favour shotgun weddings, with 100% of those between 35 and 39 years old expressing the “ought” or “must” options. Conversely, women were pretty consistent across all age groups, and in fact the lowest percentage who thought they must marry if they get pregnant was the 35 to 39 year old group, with only 8.5% expressing that opinion.

Q8A: If there is no love, is middle-age divorce inevitable? (Sample size=417, single people)

	All	Male N=232	Female N=185
If there’s no love it’s inevitable	54.3%	47.5%	62.8%
Even if there’s no love they should stay together	11.4%	11.6%	11.0%
Other	3.4%	5.4%	0.9%
Don’t know	31.0%	35.5%	25.3%

Q8B: If there is no love, is middle-age divorce inevitable? (Sample size=342, married people)

	All	Male N=152	Female N=190
If there’s no love it’s inevitable	64.1%	55.8%	70.7%
Even if there’s no love they should stay together	5.3%	5.8%	6.7%
Other	1.5%	0.9%	2.0%
Don’t know	28.1%	37.5%	20.6%

Q9: Have you ever thought about divorce? (Sample size=342, married people)

	All	Male N=152	Female N=190
Seriously thought about it	9.9%	7.4%	11.8%
Thought about it	13.3%	11.8%	14.4%
Vaguely thought about it	30.3%	30.6%	30.0%
Not thought about it at all	43.5%	50.2%	38.2%
No answer	3.1%	0.0%	5.5%

Q10: What could you think would be a causes for divorce in the future? (Sample size=342, married people, multiple answer)

	Male N=152	Female N=190
Spouse’s retirement	0.7%	3.5%
Own retirement	4.8%	0.0%
Spouse’s unfaithfulness	25.5%	42.4%
Own unfaithfulness	16.8%	8.8%
Clash of personalities	50.0%	57.4%
Failure getting along with parents or relatives	7.3%	14.4%
Money problems	19.1%	31.6%
Sexual problems	6.1%	4.6%
Violence or drink problems	4.6%	35.8%
Illness	4.3%	1.7%
Mental cruelty	12.3%	34.3%
Other	8.5%	4.4%
No answer	4.4%	2.1%

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]