Japanese shoppers on a busy street in Tokyo. Young Japanese are more likely to live at home with their parents than they did in 1994-98. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI |
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TOKYO, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The Japanese lifestyle has shifted significantly as more young people postpone marriage, while some Japanese men are going boldly forth where their fathers may have feared to tread – by finding new uses for women's menstrual pads.
Data from Japan's NLI Research Institute recently indicated the average age of marriage among Japanese women jumped to 29.4 in 2014 from 27.8 in 2010. Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai reported Monday the trend has been accompanied by a delay in economic independence among Japan's millennials between ages 25 and 34.
Young Japanese are more likely to live at home with their parents than they did in 1994-98, when 78 percent reported they lived separately. In 2014, that number dropped to 48 percent. More millennial women are in the work force, as well, with 3 out of 4 women reporting they were either employed or looking for work.
The number of young Japanese reporting their status as single also climbed 8 percent from 1990, to 33 percent between 2009 and 2013. Whereas 1 out of 4 were single two decades ago, now on average 1 out of 3 are living without a spouse.
In the NLI report, Yosuke Hirayama of Kobe University said marriage and family plans have been impeded by a lack of stable employment and income for Japan's young people.
While women are appearing in the traditionally male workplace in larger numbers, Japanese men's attitude toward women's products are changing.
Asahi Shimbun's news site DOT reported Monday that men who were formerly ashamed of admitting to using sanitary napkins for perspiration or hemorrhoids are now saying they enjoy using women's products because they "are comfortable and of good quality."
Pads are popular with male truck drivers who sit for hours as sweat collects in their rear end, according to the report, and hospitals are recommending their use for men suffering from hemorrhoids.
"At first, I was embarrassed about using them, but the cushion in the pad feels good and has reduced the pain," said one man in his 40s.
A male model in his 40s said pads help prevent his clothes from displaying streak marks, and one young man in his 20s who plays American football for his college said he wears pads on his head, under his helmet, to absorb sweat.
"I feel comfortable when I wear a pad during a game," he said.
