Aging Japan Faces Dating Hurdle As Births and Marriages Plummet

Two-thirds of Japanese people under 40 are unsure how to find a spouse, according to a recent Japanese government survey.

The nation of 124 million saw less than 500,000 marriages last year, the fewest since World War II. Births correlate highly with marriage in Japan, where children born out of wedlock is rare.

The online poll of 18,000 people between the ages of 15 and 39 was conducted in July by the Children and Families Agency, a body formed in April 2023 to address a spectrum of child-related issues, including the nation's plummeting birth rate.

The survey found that 67 percent of respondents were at a loss for how to find a life partner. Meanwhile, 66 percent said they lacked confidence and doubted they would ever find one, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

One in three respondents said actively searching for a partner was "uncool."

A couple hold their umbrella as snow falls near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on January 6, 2022. A recent government survey found two-thirds of Japanese are unsure about how to find a spouse. Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images

The poll included 2,000 married respondents, 57 percent of whom said they remembered previously viewing the hunt as hopeless. Almost half said this was due to a lack of confidence.

The survey also gave a glimpse into how those who tied the knot found love.

Among the married cohort, the highest proportion—about 25 percent—said they'd met their partner through a dating app. Around 20 percent did so at the workplace, around 10 percent through school, 9 percent through a family member or friend, and 5 percent at a party.

Japan ranked last for the second consecutive year in a 31-country survey on love life satisfaction released by Paris-based market research firm Ipsos earlier this year. Just 37 percent of Japanese respondents reported being happy with their love lives, compared to the global average of 62 percent.

The fertility rate, or the number of births a Japanese woman is expected to have in her lifetime, stood at 1.2 last year, according to figures from the Japanese Health Ministry, down 0.25 from 2015 and far below the replacement rate of 2.1.

Japan's Health Ministry has warned the country has until the 2030s to stop its population crunch. Central and local authorities have issued a flurry of measures, from cash subsidies to a government-vetted matchmaking app, to reverse the trend, so far without success.

Newsweek reached out to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare with a written request for comment.

Accompanying the country's birthrate decline is a rapidly greying population, with those over 65 accounting for about 30 percent of the "super-aged" society.

Policymakers are worried about the long-term economic impact of these trends, which have already contributed to shortages across a variety of blue-collar industries.

This has spurred the government to adopt a number of changes recently, including loosening restrictions on medium- and long-term visas for foreign residents working in certain industries.

Neighboring South Korea, China, and Taiwan face similar difficulties amid stagnating wages, the rising cost of living, and changing cultural attitudes among younger generations.