ABSTRACT
Japanese marriage and family patterns have gone through a number of significant changes over the past three decades. Once characterized by near-universal marriage, Japan now has significant proportions of men and women in their late thirties who remain single. Marriage and childbirth continue to be strongly associated with each other in Japan and in the rest of East Asia, and cohabitation and non-marital births remain relatively unusual. The Japanese birth rate has lingered below population replacement level since the late 1970s, rendering Japan the most rapidly ageing country in the world. Other important changes include a rapid increase in the proportion of solo households and a decline in the proportion of three-generation households.
