The increasing number of Asian migrant brides in Japan marrying Japanese men is a phenomenon occurring in both rural and urban Japan. Since the mid 1980s, rural Japanese men have begun taking foreign Asian brides, from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China and South Korea, as a way of compensating for the reduced number of Japanese women of marriageable, childbearing age who are willing to marry rural Japanese men. The phenomenon later spread to urban parts of Japan as well. The phenomenon has created a new industry of foreign marriage brokering that uses both local governments and private organizations to facilitate the immigration of foreign brides. This is largely a result of an aging population in Japan where approximately 20% of the population is over the age of 65, which is exceptionally high, a fertility rate of only 1.3, and increased opportunities for women and increased costs in child care.
Causes
It is difficult to identify a single direct cause for the practice of foreign brides because it is really the product of an environment. However, there are several factors which have contributed to the environment that fosters this practice. Since 1955 women have increased from 15% to 40% of the work force, reducing the availability to bear children. There is the undesirability of the role of a rural housewife. Many women prefer not to be in this role as it severely limits career opportunities and has a social stigma. Rural wives are expected to care for their husbands' parents. This can be a very traumatic experience as the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is very often abusive. In addition to these duties, a wife will have the burdens of child rearing, household and financial management, and in many cases a share of the agricultural work. Overall, the declining number of marriages is responsible for 50% of the drop in birthrate.
Another aspect that contributes to the phenomenon is the aging population of Japan. For the first time since the 19th century, Japan has been experiencing a population decline during peacetime. While there are still many available women of marrying and childbearing age now, the trend of aging in Japanese society will become self-sustaining at some point. Since 1995, Japan has experienced a decrease in the production population, those who are aged 15 to 64. There will simply be fewer women to fill these roles. And, as a result of fewer women, there will be fewer children. Marriage rates for women aged 25 to 29 dropped from 82% to 52% from 1970 to 1995.
While this is still far into the future, in some places schools have been replaced with senior centers as there are no children to attend classes.
Financial aspects or costs
While obtaining accurate and reliable information about the financial aspects of the importation of wives is understandably difficult since the majority of these arrangements are not widely publicized, the information that is available comes primarily from the agencies that facilitate these transactions. Japanese men have reportedly paid as much as $20,000 (USD) to these agencies for this type of transaction. Of this payment, as much as $3,000 is being paid as a dowry to the bride's family. The rest of the $20,000 is theoretically being allocated to travel expenses, and presents for the bride. Once again, however, these figures are somewhat ambiguous for obvious reasons.
The practice of importing brides is further encouraged by some local governments, which have established matchmaking and marriage counseling services. Furthermore, some local governments have also attempted to influence marriage by increasing taxes on singles, and providing financial rewards for clubs called koryukai, that provide meetings with eligible women. Local governments have even gone so far as to assist farmers with finding foreign brides in some cases.
Suppliers
There has only been a limited amount of study concerning the foreign bride industry in Japan. Much of what is known comes from intermediaries that work as brokers. It is common for these middlemen to be of foreign descent themselves, particularly from East or South East Asia. In fact, many brokers are former brides themselves. The broker's goal is to facilitate the transition for the foreign brides and arrange the dowry to be paid by the woman's family. In turn, the prices for the would-be husbands tend to be high, in the upwards of US$20,000.
Scott Gorman describes in The Marriage Broker how a typical middleman works. Gorman introduces Keiko, an assumed name of a Chinese broker, and discusses her recruiting and business strategy in her native China. Her goal is to facilitate the transition for the Chinese women and arrange a dowry to be paid to the women's families. Once the dowry and service fees are paid, the final stages of the transaction occur. Immigration and visa forms and requirements will be worked out in coordination with the broker and bride, and the actual wedding ceremony, if it is desired by both parties, will be planned Keiko will not reveal the price of her service, but she will admit that it is not inexpensive. According to Keiko, a foreign bride herself, she was one of only seven foreign brides in her area when she arrived nearly 20 years ago; today there are approximately 800, 28 of which are the product of her services.
Although much of this industry is private, local governments have become more involved due to the declining birthrates and the less than enthusiastic appeal of rural bachelors. In fact, the first government to establish a claim and promote the foreign bride service occurred as early as 1985 in a rural village of the Yamagata prefecture.
Though foreign brides are exported to all parts of Japan, the vast majority are being sent to rural villages and prefectures. This is mostly due to population decline, but also because of anti-rural sentiment expressed among many Japanese single women (due to many factors: agricultural work expectance, mother-in-law issues, etc.). Tomoko Nakamatsu, author of Faces of "Asian Brides" goes on further to state:
A large number of local governments in rural areas had implemented programmes to encourage (domestic) marriage among their residents. Under the policies of supporting depopulated areas, state funds were available for implementing these programmes. In the 1970s, the terms "hanayome ginkō (brides bank)" or "hanayome sentā (brides centre)" were widely used for these schemes, which aimed to make a list of available single women.
So even before foreign bride services came into prominence, during the 1970s local government boards promoted hanayome ginkō (brides bank)" or "hanayome sentā (brides centre)" to encourage Japanese women from urban areas to consider marrying rural villagers. But with the 1980s economic boom, the newly cemented middle/upper middle class population seized control of the international arena, and with it came the birth of the foreign bride trade in Japan.
Most foreign wives are of Asian descent because Western women and Japanese men tend to regard one another as undesirable marriage partners, for reasons of physical attractiveness and cultural values. Many of these wives come from China, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
Typical background of the foreign bride
There has been little documentation on the types of women that are recruited for immigration. However, there are many allusions to the premise that they are all from rural and impoverished families, as was the type of background the marriage broker Keiko came from. A newspaper story written The Philippines seems to corroborate that assumption. In the article, a Filipino mayor criticized the foreign bride business in his country, stating that his government was "giving away unspoiled women in the countryside." This statement leads to the assumption that the women are from rural areas.
Controversies
While the practice of importing foreign wives has been present in Japanese society for more than thirty years, it is still too soon to understand the long-term effects. The inability to determine the effects is because foreign bride importation is still not a common enough occurrence to get the solid data needed to comprise a thorough statistical analysis. However, the moral consequences that have risen from the industry can be examined.
The first set of consequences is the negative ones. In essence, a form of human trafficking has been created. While presumably all of the participants are volunteers, there is no official form of regulation, which creates the potential for exploiting young females. The potential for this is high since there is in fact a payment to the woman's family through the third party broker. The broker and the farmer have no way of knowing if the girl has been sent willingly by her family or if this is a form of forced prostitution or perhaps even slavery. In a worst-case scenario, the woman may not even be related to the family that is profiting from her dowry; the real possibility exists that woman being "sold" is a kidnap victim and the family are effectively slave traders. There are no safeguards against this.
Another possibility is that the woman is a con artist who will simply skip out of her new marriage once the dowry has been paid. As the marriage broker Keiko noted, there have been cases of the women returning to China or disappearing to urban Japan. The unwitting husband would have no way of knowing if the marriage broker was involved in this scam or if the broker was also a victim of the woman. As the women are foreigners, it would be very difficult to track them down once they had returned to their country of origin. Even if they are able to find the woman, the Japanese men may not have Legal recourse to collect damages or compensation.
The final possible negative consequence is the possibility that women will be placed with an abusive or exploitative husband. These women are not given citizenship immediately and may or may not have the skills to seek the protection of the Japanese judiciary system should the husband be abusive. If the woman is being forced into any form of sexual exploitation, physical abuse, or other emotional distress it would be very difficult to uncover, especially if the woman cannot speak Japanese, or is afraid of shaming her family by being unable to fulfill the contractual agreement.
Case of Priyani and Mr. Suzuki In 1987, a Sri Lankan woman, known only by her first name, Priyani, had come to Japan for computer training after answering a newspaper advertisement about it. However, she had been taken by a broker who had asked her along with a few other Sri Lankan women to dress nicely because they had a meeting with some Japanese men. She came to realise that she had been scammed into marrying a Japanese businessman known only as Mr. Suzuki and refused to take part in it. She was however told that she would have to repay the broker for flight and lodging because she refused. She eventually agreed to marry the Japanese businessman, however a few months later, while she was out of the country, Mr. Suzuki had informed her that he had wanted a divorce and had obtained a divorce using a forged signature. Through a lawyer, she managed to nullify the divorce and the marriage of Mr. Suzuki with another Sri Lankan woman he had met. A landmark court case in 1991 ultimately led to her being able to get a divorce on her terms. The court case made headlines in Japan and even caught the attention of some sections of the international media. It consequently shed light on the issue of forced marriages between foreign Asian women and Japanese men which at the time had been a little reported issue in Japan.
Divorce
Residency status of divorcing foreign spouses