Among Japanese men in their 30s, the phenomenon of ‘hereditary marriage (hereditary marriage) and non-genetic non-marriage (non-genetic marriage)’ was found to be a serious phenomenon, in which the higher the income, the lower the singleness rate. The Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 4th that increasing income through wage increases and reducing the wage gap between men and women can lead to an increase in marriage rates.
On the 29th, the Japanese government announced the 2023 Annual Economic and Financial Report (Economic and Financial White Paper), which analyzes the Japanese economy and summarizes current tasks. This white paper was written with a focus on income growth, with the Japanese government expressing hope that the country is getting closer to escaping its long-standing deflation due to rising prices and wages.
While Korea’s total fertility rate in the second quarter of this year was shocking, hitting an all-time low of 0.7, low birth rates are also a serious social problem in neighboring Japan. This white paper analyzed that the main influences on Japan’s low birth rate are the decline in the female population, the progression of non-marriage, and the decline in the couple’s birth rate.
In particular, low wage levels and the wage gap between men and women were cited as reasons for non-marriage. Looking at data analyzing the relationship between income and unmarried rate among employed men in their 30s based on the 2022 ‘Employment Structure Basic Survey’ by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, it was found that the lower the income, the higher the unmarried rate.
The single rate for people with low income in the 1 million yen (9 million won) range was 76.3%, and the single rate in the 2 million yen (18 million won) range was 64.7%. On the other hand, annual income is 6 million to 7 million yen (54 million to 63 million yen).The unmarried rate decreased as income increased, reaching 21.4% for those in the 10,000 won (10,000 won) range and 17.3% for those in the 8 million yen (72 million won) or higher range. The unmarried rate varies by up to four times depending on annual income.
This trend was also seen in surveys in 2012 and 2017, and Nikkei reported that increasing the income of young people through structural wage increases is important for increasing the marriage rate.
Meanwhile, the white paper stated, “There is a tendency to want a high annual income from a prospective spouse.” Even though the number of dual-income households is increasing, the burden of childcare and housework seems to be skewed towards women. The white paper predicted that suppressing the decline먹튀검증 in women’s income after childbirth “is expected to lower the barriers to marriage by lowering the annual salary that women demand from their marriage partners.”
Additionally, it was found that women with higher incomes tend to seek men with higher salaries as spouses.
To eliminate the impact of reduced time due to childcare, looking at the case of dual-income women without children, if the annual salary is 10 million to 14.99 million yen ( 90 million to 134.9 million won), the percentage of women with a higher annual salary than their husbands is 33. It was only %. On the other hand, 96% of men earning that level of salary had a higher salary than their wives.
Nikkei evaluated that increasing income through wage increases and reducing the wage gap between men and women will help increase the marriage rate.