Many young Japanese "parasites" want to get married, but the uncertain future when they no longer cling to their parents makes them afraid and hesitant.

In a conference room in Tokyo, the group of singles sat in pairs at each table and shyly chatting. They exchange personal information in the hope of finding the right person to marry. They all have parents to go with.

An unnamed 38-year-old woman said she did not have the courage to find a partner and leave her mother, who accompanied her to the match. "I don't have many good opportunities to meet someone," she said. "My workplace has many women, few men."

According to Japanese government statistics, about a quarter of people aged 20-49 in this East Asian country are single. Many of them expressed their desire to get married, but many experts said that conservative social views and growing economic pressures made getting married more difficult.

Sociology professor Masahiro Yamada at Chuo University in Tokyo said single people who stick to their parents until getting married are under little pressure to find a partner.

"They think dating a non-standard person is just a waste of time and can comfortably wait for a better person," Professor Yamada said of what he called "single people eating." cling ".

In addition to fears about financial security when getting married, the difficulty of finding a house suitable for income also makes many people choose to "stay" with their parents, according to Mr. Yamada.

A 74-year-old father attended matchmaking to find a suitable daughter-in-law for his 46-year-old son, pointing out another problem was timidity. "My son is a business man. He is good at negotiating with clients, but very shy," he said.

The father said his oldest daughter was married, but the youngest daughter, a doctor living in the US, remained single despite being 34 years old. He felt worried for his daughter, because many people said "it is very difficult for a female doctor to have a lover".

Shigeki Matsuda, a sociology professor at Chukyo University, says the declining marriage rate in Japan is due to the "anti-marriage" attitude. "Japanese women tend to find men with higher education and jobs that are better than them," Matsuda explained.

The matchmaking session for the single group proved this trend, as many women shared the same interest and exchanged information with the highest-earning man in the group.

"Unless Japanese women change their minds and are willing to marry a person with a lower income than them, the high proportion of unmarried people in this country will not change," Professor Yamada said.

Besides, in the workaholic society like Japan, many people often meet their subjects at work. But when the work is getting more and more uncertain, their chances will be less and less.

For decades after World War II, Japan rebuilt its economy thanks to large corporations with dedicated employees who devoted their entire lives to the job. But this model is changing as the number of jobs stabilizes. Since the early 1990s, the percentage of contracted or seasonal employees has increased from 15% to nearly 40%, according to the Ministry of Labor statistics.

"Low income levels and the number of precarious jobs increase, and the risk of being fired at any time makes many people not thinking about getting married," said Shuchiro Sekine, representing a union for contract workers, to speak.

Many people have found dating, but the job is not guaranteed and low income makes it difficult for them to get married. In 2017, 60% of wage workers aged 30-34 were married, but the percentage of married men of contract workers at the same age was only 22%, according to government research. was announced this year.

Sekine thinks that the group of singles at matchmaking in Tokyo are all lucky. "Low-income people don't even dare to attend," Sekine said.

Shoji Wakisaka, the organizer of the matchmaking ceremony, said there were a number of couples getting married after meeting here, though the exact number is still unknown. "On average, 2% of participants found the object to get married," Wakisaka estimated.

A woman attending the matchmaking session said that this was a good place to meet people who wanted to get married. "You can't ask a passerby if they want to get married," her mother said.

Noriko Miyagoshi, marriage match counselor at matchmaking, suggested that the attendees forget their financial worries to listen to the heart.

"You should not set too many criteria," Miyagoshi told attendees. "I hope you can find the person you really feel comfortable with."