Go to college, get a job, meet a guy or girl, and…don’t get married?

A recent survey suggests that almost one-third of Japanese people just can’t see the point in tying the knot and settling down. And after you see what some of them have to say about marriage, you might understand why!

Marriage has long been a staple of Japanese society, with enormous industries dedicated weddings and omiai (or matchmaking). However, recent decades have seen a shift in social standards and the number of people staying single is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

With this mind, the magazine Joshi Spa! (Women’s Spa!) conducted a survey inspired by a June event extolling the virtues of not getting married. The magazine revealed that 33.5 percent of the 37,610 respondents said they didn’t see any merit in marriage!

Here’s one person’s thoughts on marriage: “I’ve hated kids for forever and I never thought that I wanted any, so I kind of feel like there’s not point to it.”

Another respondent said, “If you’re single, you can use your money exactly as you like, and no matter how much you spend on your hobbies or interests, no one will complain, and you can live at your own pace. But if you get married, all of that disappears, so I really want to ask, honestly, is there any merit to getting married?”

Joshi Spa! helpfully broke the results down by age group as well, showing that the largest group of people who had no interest in marriage was in their 30s, with 40.5 percent of them saying “no!” to exchanging vows. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 38 percent of those still in their teens teens shrugged the idea of marriage off, while 39.1 percent of 20-somethings, and 35.9 percent of people in their 40s were also uninterested in matrimonial bliss.

As may be expected, the older groups were more likely to find value in marriage. However, it’s hard to say if this is a sign of a permanent change in thinking or if the “youngesters” are still just having too much fun to settle down.

Shockingly enough, Internet commenters had a lot to say about this.

Being broke, there’s more demerit than merit for me.

It’s probably better not to marry someone who thinks about merits and demerits. Unless you don’t mind just being an ATM.

The merits are just keeping up appearances and being socially responsible. The need for marriage like in the past is going to just keep getting less and less.

I’m married, but, honestly, I think it’s better not to. Except for the kids… I like my kids.

Everyone around me in me in their 30s, 40s, and 50s is getting divorced, and I hear nothing but rumors about affairs–it’s all just stupid. Aside from working together to raise kids, I can’t see any point to marriage.

It’s great if you marry someone you really like. But going so far as to trying omiai or going out marriage hunting, I don’t see the need.

Marriage is close to the image of getting a parasite and having it endlessly sucking the essence out of you. Seriously, won’t someone take my pig wife away??

Geez, wouldn’t want to be that last guy’s wife.

So what do you think, dear reader? Do you see any merit in getting married? Or would your rather stay single and live life at your own pace?

Source: Shunkan News, Itai News