Kon-Katsu

An abbreviated form of kekkon-katsudo, a Japanese term for “marriage hunting” which is derived from shushoku-katsudo,the term for job-hunting.

The Japan Times reported that Japanese singletons were being urged to take a more proactive approach to finding a partner:

Many singles may prefer to leave it up to fate to find their significant other, but experts are saying those who elect to wait for “the one” may never make it to the altar.

Two sociologists recently coined the phrase kon-katsu … in a bid to encourage singles to pursue marriage strategically. They hope this results in more marriages, and, ultimately, a reversal in Japan’s declining birthrate.

The paper quoted research which claimed that although 90 percent of Japanese aged 20–34 wanted to be married, 69 percent of men and 57 percent of women in that age group were single. And, it reported that “the average fertility rate has been falling since the mid-1970s and hit an all-time low of 1.26 children per woman in 2005.”