In a 2025 survey conducted by the job-hunting service "doda," titled "The Reality of Dual-Income Couples: Annual Household Income, Work, and Career Change Circumstances," the company published the distribution of annual household incomes for dual-income couples targeting full-time employees in their 20s to 50s.
The most common values for each age group are in the 8 million yen range for those in their 20s, the 7 million yen range for those in their 30s, and the 9 million yen range for those in their 40s and older. While incomes are higher for people in their 20s than for those in their 30s, this is likely because annual incomes do not decrease in people in their 30s, but rather because they may take paid leave or leave their jobs for childbirth and child-rearing.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/cc4fc9108acc0189aac0986d2cc6771d7b25df2e
8 Comments
Good luck with that! Unless either of the two is a high earning individual this isn’t gonna happen. Average household income was, if I am not mistaken, 5 million. So you would want way above average to get married? Maybe I’m interpreting the numbers wrong, and if so, please enlighten me, but unless this the elite we’re talking about I don’t see many people meeting this target.
Honestly they just need a pen (edit: and Hankos), the rest is optional sparkles.
We did a “sign the papers and get on with it” wedding, got free old wedding bands passed down from grandparents, and I have never once regretted it. People who go into debt to have a wedding are bonkers.
8 million yen when most are making 3-5? Lololololololololololololololololololol
Getting married only requires submitting a 婚姻届 at the city office. 8 million yen on a wedding itself is a completely optional choice.
They just have to go to city hall and hanko some papers. It’s free. Everything else is just for show.
As others have pointed out, in Japan you just need to sign a paper to be married.
The problem lies with the media and how easy it is to influence people nowadays (Japan lacks critical thinking in many parts). Because people set their own standard far above what their income allows thanks to this.
Additionally, keep in mind Japan is a country where you get very drastic differences in treatment depending on your appearance (clothes) or upbringing (which school and university you went to matters often more than how good your score is).
This encourages people to spend unbelievable amounts of money on things that are essentially luxury goods nowadays.
That’s ridiculous. How can it be that expensive when the rest of the country is so cheap?
A few weeks ago I heard it was very cheap with wedding venues in Japan because so few people are getting married. So which is it?
Spending over $5000 is crazy in my opinion. Just sign the paper and have a small ceremony for your close ones and then spend more on a nice honeymoon