Marriage

Marriage in Japan is a legal and social institution at the center of the household. Couples are legally married once they have made the change in status on their family registration sheets, without the need for a ceremony. Most weddings are held either according to Shinto traditions or in chapels according to Christian marriage traditions.

Traditionally, marriages were categorized into two types according to the method of finding a partner—omiai, meaning arranged or resulting from an arranged introduction, and ren’ai, in which the husband and wife met and decided to marry on their own—although the distinction has grown less meaningful over postwar decades as western ideas of love alter Japanese perceptions of marriage.