Between 2019 and 2021 the annual number of Japanese marriages plunged by almost a sixth to just over half a million. Not too surprising, perhaps, because the anti-gathering strictures of the pandemic years were disastrous for dating and weddings.
Alarmingly, though, there has been no rebound. The spring wedding season is around the corner, and it will have to be truly spectacular to put Japan back on nuptial track. More spectacular, certainly, than any democratic government could ever expect to engineer.
After a very modest recovery when Japan resumed business as usual in 2022, the number of marriages in 2023 dropped to below half a million for the first time since the mid-1930s.