Japan Foreign Marriage - Positive Outcomes

Positive Outcomes

While the potentially negative consequences can be dire, positives do exist. First, the birth rate in a country must be 2.1 to maintain the population. According to Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Japan’s birth rate in 2005 was 1.25. Since the birth rate has been in a steady decline over the last 30 years, some outside force has to increase the population in order for Japanese society to continue to exist in the long term. Immigration has been one of the keys to solving the problem of the low birth rate.

Many scholars such as Kosai, Saito and Yashiro have argued that in order to reverse the declining population trend they must reduce the disparity between the advantages of continuing to work and the costs of childcare for women. There is a danger that the method of reducing the disparity would be by limiting women’s career options. However, if there is a sufficient supply of foreign women who are content with the domestic lifestyle and willing to migrate to Japan, this can protect the advancements women have made in the career world. In a very tangible way the industry of importing wives can serve the advancement of women by filling the domestic void left behind by the hard fought victories of the women’s movement in Japan.

Another potential benefit is the financial gains to the woman’s family and to her as well. The money paid to the woman’s family can be a huge financial boon based upon the humble situations that the women are recruited from. The money paid to the family can vastly improve the lives of those still residing in the wife’s native country. In some cases having one less family member to support may be a financial benefit for the woman’s family. The woman obviously would have been able to contribute to her family’s enterprises, but having one less mouth to feed might make the difference in terms of economic success for some families. The woman's own socioeconomic status may be improved by merely marrying “upward”; in rural Japan her new family might have a greater socioeconomic status than her own family. There are some very real economic benefits for the participants of the business of wife importation.

The last possible advantage that can be taken from the industry is one of promoting international goodwill for Japan. Anthropologists have long accepted the institution of marriage as a key method of extending kinships and promoting social relations. Japan’s reputation with much of the Asian world is still negative because of the atrocities committed by Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. If the experiences of the immigrant wives are a good one then it is possible for the rest of Asia to begin to view Japan as the peaceful nation that it has become since the end of World War II. Conversely, perhaps the Japanese themselves can take the opportunity to Re-evaluate some of the xenophobic tendencies associated with the Japanese. The children of these international marriages will be the ultimate form of multi-cultural relations, as they will have ties to both Japan and the rest of Asia. This is an opportunity for more peaceful and happy relations in a region that has had strained relations for the past sixty years.