Care burden prompting more widows to cut off in-laws via little known procedure
An increasing number of Japanese, especially women, are choosing to terminate legal relations with in-laws after the death of a spouse. With Japan's graying society leaving more and more elderly requiring nursing care, the decision to break ties is becoming more prevalent as surviving spouses ...
Family debate: same-sex parents?
With LGBT relationships starting to be recognized by authorities, questions are now being asked about whether such couples should have children.
Marriage-shy Japanese turning to temple priests for help with matchmaking
Although traditionally seen as conductors of funerals or memorial services, some Buddhist monks in Japan are carving out a new niche as matchmakers for singles looking to marry. In a country where an increasing number of people are marrying relatively late in life or not ...
In sexless Japan, almost half of single young men and women are virgins: survey
In a survey of young people, around 42 percent of the men and 44.2 percent of the women who responded said they’d never had sex.
When it really means a lot, say it with 'sekkaku'
Introducing the adverb せっかく, which is used in a variety of ways to express the speaker's feelings about things.
Abuse victim fined ¥50,000 for not registering daughter's birth for 33 years
A court fines a mother on the run from an abusive husband for not registering her daughter's birth for more than 30 years, illustrating the struggle facing people without a koseki family registration.
Ain't no cure for the salaryman blues
This is an excerpt from an interview with a salaryman who wishes to remain anonymous.
Dating in Japan never used to be this difficult — or creepy
It's spring and love should be in the air. But it's a bad, bad time to be out there in the dating scene.
Beau pops the question by spelling it out with world’s largest GPS drawing
In July 2008, company employee Yasushi Takahashi decided to ask his girlfriend of eight years to marry him and was determined to make it "the world's biggest proposal." So he quit his job and went off on a six-month journey across Japan — on ...
Voiceless minority: People lacking family registry live on the outside, buried in red tape
Osaka native Haruko Kubota has waged a lifelong struggle to be "certified" as a living resident. Kubota (not her real name), 31, a petite mother of three with long dyed hair, doesn't have a "koseki" family registration. Lacking a family registry is a tremendous disadvantage ...
Yokohama: Who would be your ultimate date for Valentine's Day?
Love is in the air as couples celebrate their relationship and singles search for their soul mates. Who would be your ultimate Valentine's Day date?
San Francisco Zoo lets spurned lovers name roaches, scorpions after their ex
The San Francisco Zoo is giving the spurned lovers a chance to adopt a giant scorpion or hissing cockroach and name it after their heart-trampling ex. "When you think about the detritus of your love life this Valentine's Day, consider adopting a Madagascar hissing cockroach ...
