SJF seeks partnership of mutual respect; traditional Japanese men need not apply.

The days of American soldiers bringing demure, obedient Japanese brides back stateside to cook and clean house may not be ancient history yet. But a new generation of Japanese women - career women - are agressively looking to the West for love.

According to the CSMonitor's What Japanese women want: a Western husband, as well as my own experience with a particular strong-willed dame, these women have all but given up on Japanese men and are seeking "qualities in a partner that seem rare at home... a man appreciative of a wife's career and more of a partner in daily tasks."

Indeed, some seem so enthralled with the idea that they are willing to spend thousands of dollars to inspect the wares personally. Of the more than 2,000 women on the books at one large matchmaking agency, about 200 travel to the US or Europe each month to meet prospects.

As the article points out, while the Japanese government may be troubled by this trend in light of the plummeting national fertility rate, their inaction is also partly to blame. Equal opportunity laws exist only in name and "family-friendly policies" are slow to see light.

The general Japanese tendency to move at a snail's pace on decisions sometimes seems wise to me, from a long-term perspective. Slow and steady, yadda yadda. But they're shooting themselves in the foot with the combination of low birthrate, rising social security burden, restrictive immigration policies, and sexist and ageist labor market.

Also from the article:

Mixed marriages in Japan
Japanese men marry:
Chinese 10,242
Filipinos 7,794
Koreans 2,235
Americans 156
British 65

Japanese women marry:
Koreans 5,318
Americans 1,529
Chinese 890
British 334
Filipinos 117