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.
Soon a new expression may be needed: men and women in Japan are marrying later, or sometimes not at all. Since 1970 the average age of first marriage has risen by 4.2 and 5.2 years for men and women respectively, to 31.1 and 29.4. The proportion of Japanese who had never married by the age of 50 rose from 5% in 1970 to 16% in 2010 (see chart).
Something similar is happening in other rich countries, but Japan leads the way in Asia. (The proportion of South Koreans who have never married by 50 is 4%, for...Continue reading
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