Getting married has advantages and disadvantages for women in Japan.

First, I am going to talk about the advantages and classify them into two categories: one is to get a social reliability, and the other is to fulfill one’s private life. To begin with, I will tell you why married women can get a social reliable. In Japan, marriage is one of scales to value a personality for a long time. Japanese people tend to consider that married women, rather than single, have both consideration and etiquette; hence, generally married women are considered as an impeccable people. Next, getting married results in a fulfilling their private life. For instance, due to having babies, married women can gain self-confidence since they can have one more person who needs her love besides her spouse. The responsibility that she has to raise her children correctly might be one of the real pleasures of her life.

Next, however, marriage also causes disadvantages, which can be divided into three categories: discrimination, restricted freedom, and having to deal with new relatives. Firstly, most discrimination occurs in business. This discrimination has contributed to cut the work time, in other words, married women find it difficult to be full time workers. If the worst comes to the worst, married women might be rejected because of their personal resume. This is caused by Japanese old tradition that women have to do housework such as cooking or cleaning; moreover, the responsibility for their childcare rests with women. Next, after marriage, saving money for a family’s future forces married women to be patient to do what they want. Generally speaking, in Japan married women tend to spend money and time not for themselves but for their spouse and children. I may be able to say that married women are given less respect as an individual person after the marriage. Lastly, having to deal with new relatives might be one big disadvantage. In Japan, marriage is not only for the couple but also for their parents; therefore, some married women are forced to live with spouse’s family by pressure. Also, most women who live apart from the family would have to obey the old traditional rules for cooking or other habits.

As stated above, compared to the advantages, there may be more disadvantages. In my opinions, marriage is neither a scale to value personality nor an obligation for women. This causes no change to their personalities before and after. Recently, in Japan the number of single women is increasing. As long as marriage has both advantages and disadvantages, women should be able to choose. Therefore I feel, someday, marriage should be only one portion for women’s life.