Fewer than 80 Pct of Japan Singles Expect to Marry: Survey

Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The proportion of unmarried people in Japan who said they intend to marry eventually has fallen below 80 pct for the first time among both men and women, a survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research showed Friday.

The result highlighted a declining desire to marry as more people see few benefits to marriage.

“More people believe they will not feel lonely even if they continue living alone, while more people have never interacted with infants, and these trends are also linked to the low desire to marry and have children,” an official at the welfare ministry-affiliated think tank said.

The survey, conducted in June last year, covered unmarried people aged 18 to 54 and married couples in which the wives were under 55. Valid responses were obtained from 6,756 unmarried people and 5,024 couples. The previous survey was conducted in 2021.

Among the 3,459 unmarried people aged 18 to 34, 75.1 pct of men and 77.8 pct of women said they intend to marry eventually. Both figures fell by more than 6 percentage points from the previous survey, dipping below 80 pct for the first time since the survey of unmarried people began in 1982.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]