At the core of this puzzle is a prevalence of virginity and significantly decreased inter-gender interaction among the singles as a whole. However, among contemporary Japanese people of childbearing age, the never-married singlehood rate is ever-increasing amidst a dearth of alternative forms of partnership, a consistently high demand for marriage, and a thriving ‘marriage hunting’ (konkatsu) market.
Romantic partnership formation by itself has remained intact in most postindustrial societies despite declining marriage rates. This trend is echoed in Nemoto, Fuwa, and Ishiguro (2013) study that analyses the ambivalence that never-married employed men feel about marriage under a veneer of a stated desire for marriage as well as these men's preference for the traditional division of labor in marriages. This is consistent with the trend that, although there is an increase in single men who have unknowingly come to embody new gender tropes that evoke opposite traits from that of the 'salaryman' ideology, the previously hegemonic masculinity of the 'corporate warrior' has remained within the national psyche, so much so that even a 'freeter' (furıta) (part-time contractbased worker) would adhere to traditional gender norms of being the 'head of household' in a marriage, and would desire to be treated as such by his partner, regardless of his inability to provide financial security as sole breadwinner (Cook 2014). The single men that I interviewed also emphasized that the 'suitable' woman would be positive and bright, but certainly 'not voracious' (gatsu gatsu shiteinai), because this 'carnivorousness' would imply a sense of aggression.
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