More than 1 in 3 young people in Japan have no intention of getting married, according to preliminary results of a large-scale survey released this week by the Children and Families Agency. The agency surveyed more than 100,000 people between the ages of 15 and 39, receiving around 68,000 responses between late May and early August. However, the figures released as of Monday track only the 43,529 responses given until July 23.
The survey covered personal topics such as mental health, childhood experiences, and life concerns. On marriage, 35.1% said they had “no intention” of getting married, while 27.4% said they wanted to get married within the next five years, and an additional 37.5% said they wanted to do so “eventually.” Among those with no intention to marry, 53.1% answered that it was because they didn’t want to. When asked about what they prioritize over marriage, nearly 60% said free time and hobbies.
Economic factors were also cited as a reason not to marry, with 23.5% answering that uncertainty over income to support a marriage was a hurdle and 34.9% saying that they prioritize a stable income and employment over marriage. Similar concerns were reflected among all respondents of the marriage question. The largest overall hurdle to marriage was income worries at 40%, with income security and building savings among respondents’ top priorities.
The low interest in marriage could have a negative impact on the Japanese population, which has been declining for almost two decades. The latest figures on those who have no plans to marry are lower than similar polling conducted last year by the agency. According to the August 2025 poll of 10,000 single people between the ages of 16 and 49, 46.5% of respondents said they had no intention of getting married, an increase of over 4 percentage points from when the same question was asked in 2023.
Although those in their 40s had the highest proportion of that answer in the 2025 survey, the figure was still well over 40% for people in their 30s and below.
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