Marriage has become a minefield of unattractive choices. Japanese men have become less career-driven, and less solvent, as lifetime job security has waned. Japanese women have become more independent and ambitious. Yet conservative attitudes in the home and workplace persist. Japan’s punishing corporate world makes it almost impossible for women to combine a career and family, while children are unaffordable unless both parents work. Cohabiting or unmarried parenthood is still unusual, dogged by bureaucratic disapproval.
From the Grauniad article.
Many of the same reasons that women in the UK and Europe may choose to opt out of marriage and child-rearing. Childcare is unaffordable, prejudice (Daily Fail-esque hate of working mothers) and the modern workplace demands make it difficult to combine a career and family, and many women do not want to stay home and raise children, essentially alone, while their partner has to work long hours as the breadwinner. It’s difficult for women to get back into the workplace after a career break.
The Japanese corporate culture is far worse than ours – no flexible working, it runs on unpaid overtime, and taking time off for anything family related is frowned upon, because that’s the woman’s domain. Fathers are usually minimally involved in child rearing. This puts huge pressure on young men to achieve the kind of career success and salary that will support a wife and family. Welfare is almost nonexistent if you lose your job. Add to that the kind of conservative society that would frown on people, say, choosing to cohabit and live a DINK lifestyle.
I don’t blame them for opting out, to be quite frank. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.