« Konkatsu » One Socio-Demographic Concept from Science to Public Policy

We would like to communicate a result of our doctoral research on matrimonial population policy in Japan. Due to the sustained decline in the fertility rate and the close link between birth rate and fertility, the Japanese government launched a policy of marriage support. What we call the matrimonial policy. This program is based on the konkatsu - marriage hunting -.

Japanese singles are sometimes involved in the search for a spouse - a phenomenon that Japanese sociologists have identified as konkatsu. Similar to the process of finding a job, young people have to prepare, arm themselves and carry out activities to find their future spouse (Yamada and Shirakawa 2008). Activities include going to meeting places organized by intermediaries, by a public/private marriage agency, or using dating applications aimed at marriage.

The Japanese government is asking local authorities to set up a public marriage agency (hereafter PMA) in their department to match up single people. It is therefore aimed at single people (including divorced and widowed) who wish to marry, offering them meetings and events by dating application.

Based on 50 interviews conducted with politic actors and users at PMA, we will discuss about the political appropriation of konkatsu and demographic knowledges. The PMA has a no interference position to meeting between singles, it means that the actors do not give to users individual advice to on choosing a spouse. However, the system of dating application on which the users must write correct information of profile aggravate the currently Japanese marital market. The importance of economic power (income) and fertility (age) in a coupling demonstrated by demographers is appropriated by actors and accelerates the social inequality of access to marriage.