Japan Foreign Marriage - Suppliers

Suppliers

There has only been a limited amount of study concerning the foreign bride industry in Japan. Much of what is known comes from intermediaries that work as brokers. It is common for these middlemen to be of foreign descent themselves, particularly from East or South East Asia. In fact, many brokers are former brides themselves. The broker’s goal is to facilitate the transition for the foreign brides and arrange the dowry to be paid by the woman’s family. In turn, the prices for the would-be husbands tend to be high, in the upwards of 20,000USD.

Scott Gorman describes in The Marriage Broker how a typical middleman works. Gorman introduces Keiko, an assumed name of a Chinese broker, and discusses her recruiting and business strategy in her native China. Her goal is to facilitate the transition for the Chinese women and arrange a dowry to be paid to the women’s families. Once the dowry and service fees are paid, the final stages of the transaction occur. Immigration and Visa forms and requirements will be worked out in coordination with the broker and bride, and the actual wedding ceremony, if it is desired by both parties, will be planned Keiko will not reveal the price of her service, but she will admit that it is not inexpensive. According to Keiko, a foreign bride herself, she was one of only seven foreign brides in her area when she arrived nearly 20 years ago; today there are approximately 800, 28 of which are the product of her services.

Although much of this industry is private, local governments have become more involved due to the declining birthrates and the less than enthusiastic appeal of rural bachelors. In fact, the first government to establish a claim and promote the foreign bride service occurred as early as 1985 in a rural village of the Yamagata prefecture.

Though foreign brides are exported to all parts of Japan, the vast majority are being sent to rural villages and prefectures. This is mostly due to population decline, but also because of anti-rural sentiment expressed among many Japanese single women (due to many factors: agricultural work expectance, mother-in-law issues, etc.). Tomoko Nakamatsu, author of Faces of “Asian Brides” goes on further to state:

A large number of local governments in rural areas had implemented programmes to encourage (domestic) marriage among their residents. Under the policies of supporting depopulated areas, state funds were available for implementing these programmes. In the 1970s, the terms “hanayome ginkō (brides bank)” or “hanayome sentā (brides centre)” were widely used for these schemes, which aimed to make a list of available single women.

So even before foreign bride services came into prominence, during the 1970s local government boards promoted hanayome ginkō (brides bank)” or “hanayome sentā (brides centre)” to encourage Japanese women from urban areas to consider marrying rural villagers. But with the 1980s economic boom, the newly cemented middle/upper middle class population seized control of the international arena, and with it came the birth of the foreign bride trade in Japan.