Nearly half of Japanese people who want to get married ‘unable to find suitable partner’
近一半想結婚的日本人“找不到合適的伴侶”

來源：獨立報 翻譯：世界播

Research comes as Japan's birth rate hits lowest level since records began

調查正值日本出生率降至有記錄以來的最低水平

Almost half of single people in Japan who want to get married are unable to find a suitable partner, according to a government survey.

日本政府日前開展的一項調查顯示，日本近一半想結婚的單身人士找不到合適的結婚對象。

However, 61.4 per cent of those surveyed by the country’s Cabinet Office said they were not doing anything to change their situation.

然而，在日本內閣府的調查中，61.4%的受訪者表示，他們沒有采取任何措施來改變現狀。

The research comes amid long-standing concerns over Japan’s birth rate, which has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1899.

這項調查是在對日本出生率長期擔憂的背景下進行的，日本的出生率已降至1899年有記錄以來的最低水平。

A lack of opportunities to meet a partner and a lack of financial resources or ability to get along with the opposite sex were cited as explanations for the result, according to Kyodo News Agency.

據共同社報道，缺乏與伴侶見面的機會、缺乏經濟來源或與與異性相處的社交能力被認爲是導致這一結果的原因。

In an online survey of around 4,000 men and women aged between 20 to 40 years old, 46.8 per cent of respondents said they could not find a suitable partner to marry.

在一項對約4000名年齡在20歲至40歲之間的男女進行的在線調查中，46.8%的受訪者表示，他們找不到合適的結婚對象。

The survey was included as part of the Cabinet Office’s annual report on Japan’s declining birth rate and presented to the government on Tuesday.

這項調查是日本內閣府關於日本出生率下降年度報告的一部分，並於本週二提交給政府。

Earlier this month, a separate survey showed the country's number of births fell to 918,397 in 2018, compared to a birth rate of 2.7 million in the late 1940s.

本月早些時候，另一項調查顯示，2018年日本的新生兒數量降至918,397人，而上世紀40年代末的新生兒數量爲270萬人。

The country’s fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her life, has also declined to 1.42, well below the 2.07 rate required to maintain the population.

該國的生育率也降至1.42，遠低於維持人口數量所需的2.07。生育率衡量的是一名女性一生中預計生育子女的平均數量。

The government has set a goal of raising the fertility rate to 1.8 by April 2026.

政府設定的目標是到2026年4月將生育率提高到1.8。

In the 2018 Declining Birth Rate White Paper, 45.3 per cent of men and 51.2 per cent of women answered “Cannot meet a suitable partner” as the main reason for being unmarried.

在《2018年出生率下降白皮書》中，45.3%的男性和51.2%的女性表示，“找不到合適的伴侶”是未婚的主要原因。

Around 29 per cent of men answered “Do not have enough money for marriage” and 31 per cent of women answered “Do not want to lose freedom or comfort” as their reason.

約29%的男性回答說“沒有足夠的錢結婚”，31%的女性回答說“不想失去自由或舒適的生活”。

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, has previously described the country’s ageing population as a national crisis and promised to introduce measures to encourage couples to have more children.

日本首相安倍晉三此前曾將日本人口老齡化描述爲一場全國性危機，並承諾採取措施鼓勵夫婦生育更多孩子。

Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has estimated that the country’s older population will peak in 2042 with 39.5 million people aged 65-years-old or older.

日本國立社會保障與人口問題研究所估計，日本老年人口將在2042年達到峯值，屆時將有3950萬65歲以上老年人。