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Single men and women in Japan recently received a message from government in Tokyo encouraging them to get married.
With Tokyo being the host of the next Summer Olympics as the backdrop, the video asked, "Who will you watch the 2020 Olympic Games with?" Produced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the video was streamed in subways, on large screens on the street, and in movie theaters – an attempt to raise public awareness on the marriage issue in Japan.
In the video, a young man and a young woman are the main characters, with stories about how both of their grandparents met and got married during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics approaches and the two main characters are seeing their friends get married, they make an appointment to watch the game together and think about getting married.
The Japanese government currently faces huge challenges in dealing with a severely aging population and a declining birth rate.
Marriage has declined in Japan, with almost 23 percent of males and 14 percent of females in 2015 recorded as never having married. It means that nearly one in four men and one in seven women in Japan will never get married.
A young female in Tokyo said she felt acceptable as long as she got married before the age of 30.
When we talked to people in Tokyo, one woman expressed that she would feel fine, as long as she got married before the age of 30.
Another Tokyo citizen said that he couldn't even think about getting married, before he earned enough money, saying that he would like to get married when he had a more stable life.
As the lifetime unmarried rate rises, Tokyo produced the Olympics promotion video to encourage young people to get married.
Japanese young people tend to postpone their first marriage as well. The age at which most people were married for the first time in Japan was 31.1 for men and 29.4 for women in 2016, which rose by 2.6 years and 3.0 years respectively over the past 20 years.
Last year, the number of births in Japan was 940,000, the lowest number in the country's history. The marriage issue among the young generation is a key factor for the low birth rate in Japan.
The low birth rate and aging population issues could potentially impact Japan's economic development.
(CGTN)
