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30% are unmarried for life, 47% are sexless, and the truth about Japan's fertility collapse [Revealing the World 25]
In 1973, the first European-style castle-style love hotel appeared in Tokyo's Meguro district.
Over the next 10 years, castles were built all over Japan, and love hotels grew rapidly.
At its peak, there were 35,000 love hotels in Japan, which were visited by 500 million people a year, an average of 1.4 million people per day, equivalent to 2% of the total population of Japan.
However, this multi-billion dollar industry is now withering away, with fewer and fewer dates between men and women in love hotels, more and more women's parties, and many love hotels have to transform into ordinary hotels, or hire employees who can speak foreign languages to better serve foreign tourists.
Hello everyone, here is the curious Dr. Yixin, this issue we will talk about the crisis facing Japanese society behind the decline of love hotels.
Never get married for life
As of January 1, 2022, Japan's population is about 123 million, a decrease of about 620,000 people compared to the beginning of 2021, and a decrease of 13 consecutive years, compared with the peak in 2009 has been nearly 4 million people.
Japan's National Institute of Social Security and Population Studies predicts that Japan's population will shrink to 61.18 million by 2100, only half of what it is now.
Since the number of children born out of wedlock in Japan is very low, the reasons for the decline in fertility rate can be roughly divided into unmarried people not getting married, and married couples reducing their fertility and support.
Japan's 2022 edition of the White Paper on Social Countermeasures for Low Birthrate mentions that Japan's total fertility rate fell from 2.01 to 1.38 in 2012, and 90% can be explained by non-marriage, and 10% can be explained by married couples reducing childbearing.
In 2021, the number of marriages in Japan hit a new post-war low, at only 514,000 pairs, which is already half the number of marriages compared to 1970. What is even more frightening is that the Japanese people's willingness not to marry is getting stronger and stronger, and one in every four people will be "unmarried for life".
Japan's measure of "lifetime unmarried" is the proportion of 50-year-olds who are unmarried, taking the average of the 45-54 age unmarried rate. If you are unmarried at the age of 50, you are considered to be very unlikely to marry later.
In 1950, the proportion of 50-year-old men and women in Japan was only 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively, and after 1985, this proportion rose rapidly, growing to 28.3% and 17.8% by 2020, respectively, with an average of one out of every four people who are not married for life.
In June, the Japanese Cabinet Office released the 2022 edition of the White Paper on The Participation of Men and Women in Painting, including a survey on the willingness to marry, through which we can roughly understand the reasons why young Japanese people choose not to marry.
The proportion of men and women in their 20s who do not intend to marry is 19% and 14%, respectively. The proportion of men and women in their 30s who do not intend to marry is as high as 26.5% and 25.4%, respectively.
Regarding the reasons why they don't plan to get married, half of women in their twenties and thirties answered "I don't want to be bound by marriage, I want to be free" and "I haven't met enough people to get married".
In addition to the above two reasons, there are also "no ability to support the family and unstable work" for men in their twenties and thirties.
Compared with people in their twenties and thirties, the proportion of singles over 40 years old who do not intend to marry is significantly higher, mainly because they have been single for a long time and have become accustomed to single life, "it is more reassuring to continue to live single life", or they no longer expect to meet the right marriage partner.
Not only do they not get married, many young people don't even fall in love anymore, and nearly 70% of Japanese young people in their twenties have no lovers.
Among 20- to 40-year-olds, 24% of women have never been in a relationship, and 38% of men have never been in a relationship. About 10% of women over the age of 40 and about 20% of men have never been in a relationship.
Late marriage and late childbearing
One in four people never marry, and the remaining three-quarters marry later and later.
In 2020, the age of first marriage for Japanese men is 31 years, an increase of 4 years compared with 1975, and the age of first marriage for women is 29.4 years, an increase of 4.7 years compared with 1975.
Late marriage naturally leads to late childbearing, and the average age of a mother at the time of birth in 2020 is 30.7 years, an increase of 5 years compared with 1975.
In addition to late marriage and late childbearing, the number of married couples in Japan who have children is also declining.
Between 1970 and 2000, the average number of children born to married couples (couples married at the beginning of the 15th to 19th centuries) was stable at around 2.2, but it began to decline after 2005, hitting a record low of 1.94 in 2015.
Behind this figure, the number of ideal children of married couples in Japan is declining, the number of actual family planning children is also declining, and finally for various reasons, a discount has been made, and the current situation of married couples having fewer and fewer children has been formed.
The main reason why married couples "want to have children but can't have children" is that "the cost of childcare and education is too high", the second is "they don't want to give birth at an older age", and the third is "they want to have children but can't have children".
In terms of age groups, the younger the age, the more people choose "the cost of parenting and education is too high", and the older they are, the more they choose to choose "don't want to give birth at an older age" and "want to have children but can't have children".
Together, many couples want to have children when they are young and have no money, and then they want to have children, but they are too old or can't have children for other reasons.
In addition to not marrying and not having children, the proportion of "sexless marriage" in Japan is also increasing.
A 2017 survey by the Japan Institute of Social Security and Population Studies found that 47 percent of married men and women were "sexless," up from 32 percent when the survey was first started in 2004.
As for why, 35% of men chose "too tired" and 22% of women chose "trouble".
Educating people is a revolution
In order to cope with the problem of low birthrate, as early as 1994, Japan has launched the "Angel Plan", and then the policy has become more and more intensive year by year, but the situation has become more and more severe year by year, and the policy code name has evolved from "Angel Plan" to "Education Revolution".
However, Japan's response to the consequences of the low birthrate is obvious to all, and at best it can only be said to have delayed the decline in fertility levels.
On the one hand, this is because the implementation of the policy itself has made a lot of discounts, for example, in order to ensure the financial resources for the low birthrate, Japan raised the consumption tax to 10% in 2019, and before it began to solve the problem, it first increased people's cost of living.
And even if the tax is raised to protect funds, the proportion of Japanese household-related expenditure to GDP is far lower than that of European countries such as France and Sweden.
Another example is Japan's zf hopes to reduce the burden on families through nursery schools, but the result is that there is a serious shortage of nursery schools, resulting in a large number of children "standby", "children can not go to nursery schools, Japan to die" and even selected into Japan's "2016 annual buzzword".
On the other hand, Japan's policy of reducing births is mostly focused on childbearing (26.8%) and child-rearing (67%), and the policy for marriage is seriously insufficient, only 6.2%.
Such a policy only reduces the worries of families who want to have children to a certain extent, but for people who do not want to get married and do not want to have children, they are still helpless.
Behind the fact that young people do not marry and do not fall in love, their unemployment rate has been much higher than the overall level, the proportion of young people's non-regular employees is also much higher than the overall level, and it is still rising, and the income distribution of young people is constantly shifting to low-income groups.
Low fertility is not the root cause of social problems, but the embodiment of problems, population policies in addition to regulating fertility behavior, should pay more attention to the socio-economic factors affecting marriage and fertility intentions. After all, for every individual, whether marriage or procreation, is not a simple choice.
The content of this issue is here, how do you see Japan's lifelong unmarried, what topics you want to talk about, welcome to leave a message in the comment area, we will see you in the next issue.
Bibliography:
1.Japan's Affection for Love Hotels，Kim Ikkyon
2. White Paper on Gender Equality, Reiwa 4th edition
3. Reiwa 4th edition of the White Paper on Measures for a Declining Birthrate Society
4. Young people who do not Japan in love: 70% of unmarried men "Do not have a relationship"
5. To be born, or not to be born? ——Japan has been a child for 50 years, Meng Yiyi
6. Japan's difficulty in entering the nursery school "can't go to the nursery school, Japan will die" became popular, Shen Ying and so on
7. The deep social root of Japan's population decline, Hu Peng
8. The mystery of low fertility? The enlightenment of the fertility policy of developed countries to the mainland, Ni Hua
9. Why don't Japanese people want to get married and have children? Hou Wuting
10. Japan's 2021 marriage registrars reached a new low, and 1 in 4 young people had no intention of getting married, Wu Ying