Many marriage aspirants not hunting for spouses: Survey

June 18, 2019

Tokyo--Of unmarried Japanese people who have the desire to get married but have been unable to find an adequate partner, more than 60 pct said they are not engaged in "konkatsu" spouse-hunting activities, a government survey showed Tuesday.

When asked why they are unmarried, the largest group, or 46.8 pct of the respondents, said they have yet to meet someone adequate as a spouse, according to the survey, in which responses were collected from 3,980 men and women in their 20s-40s in Japan who are hoping to get married.

Respondents who said they do not have enough savings for marriage accounted for 26.6 pct, while those who said they find it difficult to get along with the opposite sex made up 24.0 pct.

Of those who cited their failure to meet a good partner as the reason for being single, 61.4 pct said they have not taken any action to look for their future spouses. The proportion of such respondents surpassed 70 pct for men in their 20s.

"The results brought to light how young people are unable to make moves actively" regarding marriage, said an official of the Cabinet Office. "The government plans to back up municipalities' marriage-support efforts through the provision of subsidies and other measures."

The survey was conducted over the Internet in Dec. 7-18, 2018.

The outcome was reported in an annual government white paper on measures to deal with the country's low birthrate, which was adopted at Tuesday's cabinet meeting. Jiji Press