Japanese Men Don't Want to Marry Housewives
By wchung | 11 May, 2025

Less than one in five Japanese men are interested in marrying a woman who wants to be a full-time housewife, according to a survey released Tuesday by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

In stark contrast to the preferences of their potential spouses, more than one in three (34.2%) single Japanese women aged 15-39 years responded positively to a question asking whether they want to be a full-time housewife after getting married. A slightly larger percentage (38.5%) expressed a lack of interest in becoming a full-time housewife.

Only 19.3% of single men expressed positive feelings about the prospect of their spouses becoming full-time housewives. Those who held negative views of that prospect accounted for 30.2%.

Even a larger percentage of Japanese women may be disappointed when it comes to their spouses’ incomes. The biggest group (40.8%) wanted their spouses to earn a monthly take-home pay of between ¥200,000 and ¥300,000 yen ($20,000 – $30,000), followed by those who wanted spouses’ monthly net earnings to be between ¥300,000 and ¥400,000 ($30,000 – $40,000). Less than 2% of Japanese workers earn over ¥200,000 yen. Only 4.2% said “income doesn’t matter”.

The survey data was distilled from responses submitted online in March by 3,133 men and women, including those who were already married.