Kokusai kekkon, or international marriage, is a popular way for Japanese to find a partner who can provide something that other Japanese are unable to, and more and more Japanese of both sexes are open to the idea of marrying someone from another country. The other day I caught an interesting TV show called Sekai Banzuke: World Ranking that took on the topic of international marriage, inviting famous gaijin “talents” (Japanese-bilingual foreigners who work as commentators or comedians in Japan) who have Japanese husbands and wives to hear their thoughts on the subject. The discussion was quite spirited as foreigners from the U.S., Britain, France, India, Brazil, Finland, South Korea and Hong Kong told of the various trials they faced getting used to living with a foreign spouse. These challenges included lifestyle differences (the guest from India said his wife got tired of him asking to eat curry three times a day, every day) as well as language (the Harvard-educated American “talent” Pakkun annoys his wife by correcting her Japanese in front of others). The show also covered one of the most famous international marriage of the 20th Century, that of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which is a rarity as Yoko is oddly unpopular in Japan and almost never discussed in the media.
International marriage and Japan.
