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AUTOBIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Bridging Heaven and Earth| Chapter 3
Love evolution, part 1: The man and my dreams
The Single Forty Year-old Phenomenon
Several years ago, I saw a news program on Japanese public TV where they got a supercomputer to analyze all the problems facing Japanese society. The keyword the computer came up with was “Single 40 year-olds.” The phenomenon of an increasing number of single 40 year-olds is a symptom, not a cause, but the idea that this symptom is intricately tied with almost every other social problem in Japan went right along with what I had been thinking.
Every country has their fair share of messed up relationship ideals. That is precisely why those ideals change over time. I believe that the evolution of popular romantic notions is a key element in building a brighter future. However, in Japan, despite immense changes in society, the popular consensus of how married couples should be, remained essentially the same for about 100 years. The generation of people in their sixties or seventies failed to even notice that their romantic ideals were outdated. People in their forties started to notice, but by then the old ideals were so widespread and deep-rooted, that it was easier just to give up on romance altogether. This, I believe, is the true cause…
