2) Attitudes Towards Relationships and Marriage

Japan has seen HUGE changes to the attitudes towards relationships and marriage in the past few decades, not unlike many other countries around the world, including America. For instance, more and more women in Japan, like in America, have become extremely career driven. There is even a notion in Japan that marriage is a grave for women because the culture is extremely unconducive to working mothers.

“Peace out marriage! We got work to do.”

As Japan has very traditionally been a male dominated society, the belief is that if a woman marries and has children, she must give up her career. This is in contrast to America where women have a much more favorable position and try to do it all, with many women CEOs being mothers as well. Furthermore, many men and women report in the surveys conducted by the Japanese government that they deem relationships too much work and not worth the effort in lieu of their hectic work lives and personal hobbies and interests.

Unless of course you are this guy, who was able to make the best of both worlds.

This is compounded in the male mind by the still existing notion that in order to have a relationship and maybe one day a family, one must make enough money on their own to support such a life and still buy the woman nice things in the process.

Even for this guy who married his pillow, the pressure to provide for his new bride is immense. New covers and laundry detergent to clean his bride ain’t gonna buy themselves ya know!