Single Women and New Social Formations in Japan

• In Event: Rethinking Japan’s Lost Decades

Abstract

This paper considers the emergence of large numbers of single women in relation to the debates on post-bubble Japan as a period of loss and decline. It considers the gradual rise of singlehood over many decades, and the simultaneous rise of romantic love and decline of “arranged marriages.” These long-term trends challenge assumptions that the rise in singlehood emerges as part of the post-bubble breakdown of social institutions. Beyond the Japan context, the paper compares the rise of singlehood in Japan with its rise in other East Asian societies including mainland China and Hong Kong and considers region-wide reasons for the rise of singlehood. Further, the paper examines the views and experiences of single women in Japan to consider new ideas and social formations under construction with the decline of assumed universal marriage. Single women in Japan are found to be critiquing and rethinking institutions of work, family, and marriage.

Author

• Lynne Nakano, The Chinese University of Hong Kong