Ever heard these lyrics: “I be looking for labels, I ain’t looking for love”?
By: Nicole Kirichanskaya
“A Prada dress has never broken my heart before.” In case you haven’t watched the fabulously iconic Sex and The City movie, these lyrics come from Fergie’s song “Labels or Love”, a song that lauds having expensive clothing items versus a romantic relationship.
While a lot of women, especially from metropolitan areas, like to joke about a designer bag bringing more joy to them than an actual boyfriend, are these song lyrics actually accurate? Are there women who seriously consider designer labels more enjoyable than a long-term and committed relationship? According to several marriage statistics of Asian countries, such as Japan, it looks as if there a large number of women who prefer luxury labels over love.
Photo: REUTERS/ Carlos Barria
What I’m referring to is Japan’s incredibly specific nickname given to their single people, typically in their late twenties and beyond, who aren’t interested in marriage and are living off their parents, “Parasite Singles”. The term derives from the Japanese horror flick, “Parasite Eve”, in which alien hatchlings feed off their human hosts, a metaphor for Japanese singles leeching off their parents income and resources, such as food and rent.
While this nickname isn’t subject to one gender, a man can be a Parasite Single as easily as a woman can, there appears to be more socioeconomic issues leading to this large percentage: approximately 40% of Japanese women uninterested in marriage or childbearing. In 2015, a survey was conducted by the Cabinet Office, responses of 7,000 people aged twenty to thirty-nine years old, determined that almost 40% of women and men were uninterested in a romantic partner in Japan.
Several economists and sociologists have varying theories as to the single status of so many young Japanese citizens of this generation. Economists think that with a lack of jobs, Japanese singles are frightened of financially providing for themselves and are reluctant to wean off the support of their families. Another theory economists have is that this same financial insecurity makes Japanese singles more afraid and reluctant to take on the monetary burden of supporting a spouse and children. However, socialists have a completely different route of thinking, and their theories correspond more directly as to why there are so female Japanese singles.
Social norms; historically speaking, women in Japanese society have typically been expected to get married, become a housewife, take care of household and childrearing duties, and be a dutiful wife to their husband. Even today, women in Japan are practically expected to quit working once they get married; 70% of women leave work after becoming pregnant, as opposed to the 30% of American women who do the same. As of yet, Japan doesn’t have the same culture America or other countries do regarding working mothers and childcare, where a woman will be able to work and take care of her child simultaneously, rather than having to give up one for the other.
Other Japanese women state that they simply find relationships or physical contact (sexual relations between Japanese citizens is also decreasing at an extremely high rate) “bothersome”, and would prefer focusing on work, their friends, traveling, shopping, and the like. Looking at it from this perspective, is it really any wonder why designer companies, such as Louis Vuitton or Issey Miyake, find that their largest group of Japanese clients are single, young females with an expendable salary? If the only other option for a young Japanese female is to stay home and take care of children and the home with little room for anything else (such as a job or traveling), the idea of a comfortable living situation with your family, one in which rent, food, and general living costs are almost nonexistent, and you can spend the majority of your salary on designer labels, traveling, and other luxuries, seems almost blindingly obvious in comparison.
Photo: http://www.todaatual.com/2014/10/bolsas-louis-vuitton-original-precos.html
While there are many other reasons that can be attributed to lack of romantic interest between Japanese couples; however, it all leads to back to the same problem, decreasing rates of marriage, childbirths, and economic stability for Japan’s future generations.
In 2014, Japan’s estimated number of newborns fell to 1.001 million, the lowest birth rate this country has had in its entire history. The government theorizes that at this rate, Japan’s birth rate will drop from 127 million to 87 million by 2060. The increasing number of aging elderly Japanese citizens even further exacerbates the problem of this low birth percentage, adding more fuel to the economic instability of Japan’s future.
Unless Japanese society and cultural norms start to see some serious changes in the near future, it seems as if for now in the fight over love versus luxury, for the female Japanese single designer purses and clothing win by a total knockout.
Photo: Ed van der Elsken
-NK
