What do you think about "konkatsu"? (Yuki, Naoko)

Konkatsu is a Japanese word which explains the activities that lead to marriage, such as going to omiai. In Japan, decrease in population and increase in number of unmarried people have been serious social issues and some believe that konkatsu will help these problems be solved. Yuki and Naoko have researched how the word, konkatsu, was made, old and new styles of omiai, and data that relate to konkatsu, through this assignment.

           The word konkatsu, a coinage for kekkon katsudou, were made by a Japanese sociologist, Masahiro Yamada, liken to the word shukatsu, an abbreviation for shushoku katsudou (job hunting), and it was first used in a weekly magazine called AERA for November 5^th in 2007. Later on, Yamada publishes “Konkatsu” Jidai with Momoko Shirakawa in 2008 which made the word konkatsu popular among Japanese people. The word has now become common sense and there are many TV programs and dramas that choose konkatsu as their theme. For example, a TV program called “Mote mote nineteen-nine”, which two famous comedians act as MC, helps people hold a huge omiai (marriage interview).

They first gather women who want to get married and then take them to countryside to hold a huge omiai Party with men who live there. In addition to that, a drama called Konkatsu! is about a men who lost his job but does not want to become the heir after his father’s job and make a lie that there is a woman who he wants to get married with. To make the lie come true, he starts konkatsu.

In Edo-era, most of the people find their partner through omiai because they did not have opportunity to meet their opposite sex in their daily life. The traditional omiai is held only for two people, man and woman. It is held by a third person called sewanin and it could be their family or even their neighbors. It usually takes place in restaurant in luxury hotel or café. Even though this kind of omiai still exists, the style has changed since konkatsu boom has spread all around Japan. The new style of omiai does not acquire a sewanin but for instead, a konkatsu company would introduce you a partner. In addition, some people hold omiai at family restaurant, which is much more casual than traditional way. Furthermore, most common omiai style is not for two people anymore, and it is for a group of people who want to get married. It is called omiai party or konkatsu party.

According to the article of “Konkatsu Style”, 60 percent of people who are not married and do not have a date are not doing konkatsu. This means rest of the 40 percent is actually working for finding their future partner. The most popular konkatsu website, “Match.com”, has a member of more than 1 million people. Out of these people, the website states that about 45-50% of them succeeded in finding partners that match perfectly for them. This percentage is calculated by diving the number of people who tried konkatsu by number of people who have succeeded(トライ数÷達成数＝達成率). However, people who come to the konkatsu party with friends and do not have any aim or particular purpose, the percentage turns out to be much lower.

To join the konkatsu activities through internet, you need to pay membership fees each month. The cost differs depend on which website you register. Some websites cost more than 4,000yen and some cost only 1,000yen; there are ones that do not take any fees from the members! However, the ones that cost more have higher rates than those that are cheaper. For example, “Match.com”, the website we mentioned in the previous paragraph, has a membership fee of 2,466yen per month (expensive compared to others), but its rate is five out of five. People who belong to this site seem to be very satisfied. On the other hand, the website called “Ai-Cupid” does not call for any fees, but the rate is quite low and it is two out of five.

We have taken a survey to students in universities to find out the impressions of konkatsu they have. The survey goes like this:

1.    What do you think of konkatsu?

a.    とても良いと思う

b.    良いと思う

c.     どちらでもない

d.    あまり良くないと思う

e.     全く良いと思わない

f.     聞いたことがない

g.    Others

2.    Would you like to do konkatsu in the future if needed?

(Yes / No)

3.    If no, why?

a.    Doesn’t seem to be successful (成功しなさそう)

b.    Might get deceived (だまされそう)

c.     Don’t want to go that far to get married (そこまでして結婚しなくてもいい)

d.    Want to marry for love (恋愛結婚がいい)

e.     Not interested in marriage (結婚自体に興味がない)

f.     Others

21 students (8 boys and 13 girls) have helped answering the survey. Most of them did not have bad impressions on konkatsu and no one picked (e) for the first question. This means they, at least, think konkatsu is not a bad method for finding the partners. Out of 21 students, 9 people answered that they would (prefer) to do konkatsu in the future if needed. We were surprised that almost half of them are positive for being part of the konkatsu members. Those of who answered “no” to the second question explained their reasons by choosing the most fitted choices. The reason most people chose was (d); they want to marry for love.

In conclusion, konkatsu are helping Japanese society from continuing the increase of number of unmarried people. Since the percentage of single people who do not marry for their lifetime has grown so much bigger in the last 10 years, the Japanese are trying to cheer them up to support the lonesome society. When the word first came up to the society, there were some people who think that konkatsu is too greedy and ashamed of doing it; however, as it gets popular, people began to think this as a great method of getting a chance of marriage. 

Yuki Shirai, Naoko Iwanaga

Herbivorous boys and Anti-marriage boys (Yuma Yamada and Tomohiko Ebashi)

What do you think about a man who does not choose to get married in Japan? This trend has been continuing since several years ago from now. Some social scientists have determined a man who is not able to get married to be called “herbivorous boys” (alternatively, they are called “Soushoku-Kei-Danshi” in Japan), which means a man who does not have a courage in having a relationship with girls. On the contrary, we define the man who is not afraid of getting married. For those who choose to stay as a bachelor, we sometimes call them “Anti-marriage Boys”. In this post, we would like to discuss about definitions of each type of men who do not marry, and compare and contrast each type of men. Also we would like to inform you of survey results through our research.

 

              First, “herbivorous boys” are men who are not encouraged to have relationship with women. This is because men’s inactive attitude toward action and personality is similar to herbivore animals’ images. Herbivore animals have a peaceful image in the wild, where flesh-eating animals live. This image could be fitted to today’s images of boys. For example, they tend to avoid concerning about love and fighting with other boys in order to make relationship with girls. On the other hand, there are men who are totally afraid of women, or have no interest in them at all. It is sometimes said that hormones in the body is being collapsed by modern disease, but they may be uninterested in women because of their unreliability. Some may even think that love is not necessary unless if you are planning to marry in the future.

The main reason of herbivorous boys’ increase is because of social changes in the recent years. In Japan, for past 20 years, national economy has been declining and not wealthier than the age of bubble economy in 1980’s in Japan. Therefore, people couldn’t make and spend money easier than that age, and do not use money for partner such as birthday party, Christmas present, and in other events. However, people still have an image that having a relationship with women would require a large amount of money, so people do not take action in making relationships with women because of economic problem. Due to this national problem, boys tend to think of the usage of money even more carefully than before. Many boys are now looking for a partner who has the similar value in spending. In our survey, we have researched on the values which teenage girls seek on boys.

In our survey, we have asked questions on images of the men in present/former age, and researched on the differences between two ages. We had the answerers to choose from multiple selections. In other questions, we asked whether if men are: active/passive in making relationships, childish/adult, good at/bad at domestic works, cool/cute, and brave/timid. After we got results from 19 teenage girls, we tallied them up. We first got a result that men in present age are not very dependable economically. On the contrary, we got a result that men who lived in former age were imaged a lot dependable than those of present age. From this result, we can suspect that a man in present age is unreliable economically, and undependable for women.

 

Secondly, we found out that the appearance of “herbivorous boys” is, as boys choose not to have a relationship with a girl, could be seen as a social change for women. In our present society, woman has a right to work in company with the same authority as men. It becomes a major change in the image in terms of gender. Women could work outside just like men do; on the contrary, men are not forced to work outside anymore instead of working domestically. Moreover, this social change has shifted the roles of men and women. Women in present have shifted the role of men, who are looking for a way in making a relationship with woman. However, men in present have shifted the women’s position, which only required them to wait patiently for men’s approaches.

In our survey, we got a result that fifteen percent of girls answered that men in present age are passive when it comes to constructing a relationship. On the contrary, another fifteen percent of girls said that women in present are very active in constructing a relationship.

Therefore, social change has shifted relationship between men and women. On the other hand, those who choose not to marry have an anxiety in marrying a woman who has a different value of life. Through our survey, we have found out that although there are more than twice girl who want to marry, boys tend to avoid marrying a girl. Boys feel that going out with a girl he love, but marrying her would be a difficult thing to consider, in terms of houseworks. In our survey, we got a result that about fifty percent of girls voted on “former girls were better at domestic works than present age”, and no one has voted on the fact that “present girls are better at domestic works than former age”.

 

In conclusion, we found out that there are various definitions to “soushoku-kei-danshi” and “anti-marriage boys”. All of the boys have a right to choose whether it he want to marry or not, but it is a fact that Japan is always facing a low-birth and high-aging problem. We cannot neglect this huge problem, but we cannot force them to marry a woman. Since the world is gradually becoming tolerant to anyone, the number of homosexual people would rapidly expand, which is a good social movement from the old idea of sexism. Although Japan is said to be a sexism country even now, but it is sure that the women are gaining an equal power as men. Now, some women even have a power over men workers. As the rights of men and women become more equal, the definition of masculinity is becoming more and more unbalanced. Traditional Japanese family composed under a stubborn father, but now men are losing their goal in building a relationship with women. Gender equalization was a revolutionary event, but it has done negatively in some ways from men’s point of view.