Economist, Sept 3, 2016 (II)

choi

(3) Marriage in Japan | I Don't; Most Japanese want to be married, but are finding it hard.
http://www.economist.com/news/as ... ding-it-hard-i-dont

Quote:

"The proportion of Japanese who had never married by the age of 50 rose from 5% in 1970 to 16% [men and women have different ratios] in 2010 (see chart). * * * in the West, the decline of marriage has been accompanied by a big rise in the number of unmarried couples living together, only around 1.6% of Japanese couples cohabit in this way. So in Japan fewer marriages means fewer babies

"in the West, the decline of marriage has been accompanied by a big rise in the number of unmarried couples living together, only around 1.6% of Japanese couples cohabit in this way. So in Japan fewer marriages means fewer babies

In Japan: "Couples are expected to have children shortly after getting married, so women who want to delay childbearing have a strong incentive to delay marriage.

Note:
(a) The photo (where the husband, to the right of the bride, seems to be a foreigner) shows a shintō wedding 神前結婚
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_wedding
(section 1.1 Costume: Shinto brides and grooms typically wear a kimono. The bride wears a traditional kimono, oftentimes combined with a wig. There is also a paper hat, a tsuno-kakushi, or "horn hider," meant to conceal the "horns" of jealous demons. Typical colors for this kimono include red and white, colors of Shinto purity)

Japanese-English dictionary:
* tsuno-kakushi 角隠し 【つのかくし】 (n): "bride's head-dress"
   ^ tsuno 角 【つの】 (n): "horn"
* miai kekkon 見合い結婚; 見合結婚 【みあいけっこん】 (n): "arranged marriage"
   ^ miai 見合い(P); 見合 【みあい】 (n,v): "formal marriage interview; marriage meeting"

(b) "SEIKO, a 35-year-old journalist in Tokyo, is what the Japanese refer to as 'New Year Noodles.' The year ends on December 31st, and, by analogy, the period when a Japanese woman is deemed a desirable marriage prospect ends after 31. It could have been worse: the slang term used to be 'Christmas cake' because a woman's best-before date was considered to be 25."
(i) Japanese New Year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_New_Year
(It is also very common to eat buckwheat noodles called toshikoshi soba on the New Year's Eve)

* soba  蕎麦
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soba
(buckwheat, as well as noodle made from buckwheat flour)
(ii) Christmas cake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cake
("In Japan, Christmas cakes are traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve. They are simply a sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream, often decorated with strawberries, and usually topped with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruits, and a Santa Claus decoration. * * * In Japan, women had traditionally been expected to marry at a young age and those who were unmarried after the age of 25 were sometimes scornfully referred to as Christmas cakes (unsold [no use] after the 25th). The term first became popular during the 1980s[10] but has since become passé[11] because Japanese women today often remain unmarried without stigmatization")

(c) "People are finding it harder to meet, too. The days of omiai, or arranged marriage, are more or less gone."

See (a) for Japanese definition.

(d) " 'parasite singles': people who live with and depend on their parents well into adulthood. * * * 'I worry about what will happen when these people's parents die,' says Masahiro YAMADA 山田 昌弘 , a sociologist at Chuo University 中央大学 [private; at Tokyo] who coined the term 'parasite single.' [written as katakana in Japan]  Not many singletons have boyfriends or girlfriends, even if they are neither otaku (men who are obsessed with anime or computer games) nor hikikomori (those who lock themselves away in their rooms)."
(i) otaku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) Japanese0English dictionary:
* otaku お宅(P); 御宅 【おたく】 (n): "(1) (hon[orific 尊称]) your house; your home; your family * * * (4) (hon) you (referring to someone of equal status with whom one is not especially close)"
* hikikomori 引きこもり(P); 引き籠もり 【ひきこもり(P); ヒキコモリ】 (n): "(1) a shut-in; a stay-at-home; people who withdraw from society (e.g. retire to the country); (2) social withdrawal; shunning other people"