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Thread: 70% of Japanese women say they don't need a partner to be happy

  1. #1
    Twirling dragon Maciamo's Avatar
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    Arrow 70% of Japanese women say they don't need a partner to be happy

    BBC News : Japan women's singular contentment

    Quote Originally Posted by BBC News
    Seven out of 10 single Japanese women believe they can be perfectly happy remaining on their own, according to an opinion poll in the Yomiuri newspaper.
    The number of women believing singledom can bring contentment has risen by 10% since 2003, the newspaper said.

    Analysts say the results reflect the fact that staying single is no longer the social stigma it once was.
    ...
    Yomiuri's nationwide survey found that 73% of single female respondents and 67% of single males agreed that women could be completely happy living on their own.

    But the numbers fell with age. Of those in their 20s, 74% of male and females asked said they believed women could be happy if they did not marry.

    The rate dropped to 66% for respondents in their 30s, and 58% for those in their 40s.
    Watch out that "stay on their own" doesn't me "not have a/many sex partners". I think that the number of singles is increasing mostly for 2 reasons :
    1) they are free to have as many sex partners as they want, and change anytime they want
    2) they don't want to have children because it's a threat to their freedom and (libertine and extravagant) lifestyle.

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  2. #2
    Chukchi Salmon lexico's Avatar
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    Looking at only the downside of marriage, the obligations arising from marriage or permanent cohabitation can be due cause of stress which sucks the life out of life itself depending on how one looks at it. It is also true that child bearing and rasing is probably the greatest drain of resources on the parents, and especially on the mother.

    Growing up with too much girlie manga and anime (only those that are), it is not surprising that Japanese women in their marrying years should think twice about marriage. Why kiss good-bye to the fantasy world of sailor moon in which one can stay forever young, in the never never land ? Financial independence is another reason that encourages them to stay single as you noted. A husband and a child can be expensive to maintain.

    With an increasing number of liberated women, population is destined to decline. But in their minds, perhaps, reality is rather grim compared to the fantasy world, so why bring another being, for whom she will feel responsible, into the world, and thereby increase unhappiness ?

    If that's indeed what they are thinking, I guess Japan is doomed to failure in the long run unless it finds a way to procure children with artificial means. That would mean laws would have to be changed, starting with the surrogate mother ruling of 2004, which was hardly conducive to encouraging hi-tech child bearing. Artificial wombs are being suggested (see Artificial Wombs and the End of Pregnancy), but that's not a good option imo.
    Last edited by lexico; Feb 26, 2005 at 06:35.
    Z: The fish in the water are happy.
    H: How do you know ? You're not fish.
    Z: How do you know I don't ? You're not me.
    H: True I am not you, and I cannot know. Likewise, I know you're not, therefore I know you don't.
    Z: You asked me how I knew implying you knew I knew. In fact I saw some fish, strolling down by the Hao River, all jolly and gay.

    --Zhuangzi

  3. #3
    Your Goddess is here Ma Cherie's Avatar
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    Interesting survey, perhaps this decline in marriage can be do to the idea that the woman is existing for her husband and children instead of for herself. But that's just my opinion. I don't know if support artifical child birth.
    "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."
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    by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

  4. #4
    un̔ԌIv Dekamaster's Avatar
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    I don't know about the percentages for other countries, but I think this reaction might just be a short run trend. That is unless Men shape up and do a more persistent courting than just sending flowers.
    Ni sen san / Ni sen go / Ni sen nana

  5. #5
    Go to shopping PopCulturePooka's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dekamaster
    I don't know about the percentages for other countries, but I think this reaction might just be a short run trend. That is unless Men shape up and do a more persistent courting than just sending flowers.
    And also be better husbands. Eg looking after kids and pulling their weight around the home. Not dooming the wife to a life of housewifing.

  6. #6
    basketballman Dream Time's Avatar
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    they have dilidos and vibrators to keep them happy everyday and everynight

  7. #7
    Go to shopping PopCulturePooka's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dream Time
    they have dilidos and vibrators to keep them happy everyday and everynight
    Or their english teachers from the local NOVA/ECC/Geos/Gabba/Aeon.


    I have said too much!

  8. #8
    Hullu RockLee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FirstHousePooka
    Or their english teachers from the local NOVA/ECC/Geos/Gabba/Aeon.


    I have said too much!
    BUSTED pal !! well, I think it's one of the reasons non-japanese partners are more seen in the last years...because with a lot of people after they get a kid, it's over with the sexlife And japanese people don't give a kiss when hubby gets home or things like that...european & american ppl do...small things like that seem to influence the japanese women I think. (they like Korean men don't they )
    ~ Parempi hullu kuin tylsä - Better crazy than boring ~
    http://www.fin-style.be/blog -> My Blog about Finland and other random thingies.

  9. #9
    Regular Member cicatriz esp's Avatar
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    These women don't possess the ability to fall in love?

  10. #10
    ژ^ Index's Avatar
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    Good point Maciamo re. what they really mean. Sounds like another fad to me anyway

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