Time Distributions in the Process to Marriage and Pregnancy in Japan

Abstract

In order to clarify factors affecting the timing of marriage and pregnancy of Japanese women, this paper examines the timing of marriage, the age at which women first met the men they eventually married, the time that elapsed between first meeting and engagement, between engagement and marriage, and between engagement and first conception for the 1937–1955 birth cohorts. Women resorting to an arranged marriage showed a large increase in the age at first meeting as well as marriage age, while women marrying on a love-match basis did not. Supporting the hypothesis that there are three stages of Japanese women's attitude towards marriage, which affect the pattern of time schedule to marriage, it is found that women with a larger probability of career-seeking are likely to have a higher age at first meeting and a longer time between engagement and marriage even in love-match cases. This study suggests that a large proportion of women preferred their marriage to be a love match, but only a minority were career-orientated in Japan.