Japan’s government has tried various tricks and incentives to convince Japanese people they should get hitched and have babies. It’s not working. Both marriage rates and births continue to decline year over year.
It’s not that women aren’t getting married in Japan, though. They are. The twist? They’re getting married to themselves. Here’s why “solo weddings” have taken off even as real marriages decline.
One bride, no groom
A solo wedding (ソロウェディング; soro ueddingu) or self-wedding (セルフウェディング; serufu ueddingu) is essentially a wedding photo shoot experience. The “bride” dresses in a white Western wedding gown or a white kimono (shiromuku; 白無垢) and has her picture taken, either in a studio or on location. No guests, no vows, and no groom.
The experience is the brainchild of Kyoto travel agency Cerca Travel. It initially launched the idea in 2014 as a two-day photo shoot package. As originally launched, the package started at roughly $2,540 and included dress fitting, hair and makeup, a limousine, a night in a hotel, and a photo shoot in the gardens of the Shugakuin Kirara Sansō teahouse.
The event doesn’t have to be that pricey, though. Many other studios have now jumped into the game, offering photo shoots for as low as 39,000 yen ($249 USD) for a basic indoor session. Fancier outdoors sessions with multiple outfits and on-location shooting can run up to 300,000 yen ($1,920).
Who books these shoots? Half of all customers at Cerca Travel were already married – they simply wanted a do-over, or a photo shoot they never got the first time around. The rest, however, were single women looking for the pomp and joy of a wedding ceremony without the baggage of a spouse.
No idea how to meet marriage partners
Solo weddings are thriving at a time when real weddings are in decline.
We first reported on the decline in the marriage rate in 2020. Since then, the numbers have only gotten worse. The country reported fewer than 500,000 marriages in 2023. The Japan Research Institute projects a total of 485,000 marriages for 2025.
Low marriage rate also means a low birth rate. Japan now sees under 700,000 live births a year, bringing the number of children down to just 10.8% of the total population – the 45th consecutive year of decline.
It’s not that people don’t want to get married. A survey by the Japan Children & Families Agency finds that 63.8% of unmarried workers in their 20s want to tie the knot. However, 29.3% also said they don’t know where to go to meet anyone.
Other surveys also show that people are burning out on konkatsu (婚活, marriage-seeking). One such survey by Sanmarie found that 80% of people are “exhausted” by the hunt.
Marriage intent declines sharply as single people age. The Children and Families Agency found that the intent to marry among workers in their 30s dropped to 50.8%. In other words, if you can’t find a partner in your 20s or your 30s, the chances that you’ll remain single for the rest of your life skyrocket.
Being at peace with living alone
With these grim numbers, wedding companies have to do something to adjust. Thus the solo wedding experience was born. Recently, companies have found another way to capitalize on the growing trend: marriage ceremonies with fictional characters.
In 2026, the game iDOLM@STER teamed up with a wedding service in Tokyo to offer Shining Moments Produced by Beit. The collaboration, running through April at venues in Odaiba, Yokohama, Ōmiya, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka, gave women the chance to engage in a fictitious marriage with members of Beit, the male three-member idol unit from THE iDOLM@STER SideM series.
Such offerings leverage the growing popularity of oshikatsu, or spending money on one’s favorite entertainer, idol, or fictional character. Some studios have set up dedicated “2D wedding” shooting spaces with monitor displays of fictional grooms. Entry-level prices for these experiences start around 11,000 yen ($70).
Whether they’re marrying fictional grooms or just getting hitched by themselves, unmarried women who’ve done solo weddings say the experience has helped them come to terms with permanent singlehood. Y, a 20-something woman, wrote in a personal essay about how the experience brought her peace:
“Even if it turns out I live the rest of my life alone, I won’t have any regrets.”
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Sources
話題の「ソロウェディング」、実際にどんなことができるの？ 結婚スタイルマガジン (Niwaka)
「ソロウェディング」とは？実際にできることや楽しみ方をご紹介！ ゼクシィ
「ソロウェディング」は推し活や女子会にもおすすめ！費用や流れ、人気スタジオも紹介 みんなのウェディングニュース
推しと結婚できる「ソロウェディング」って？お一人様でもドレスを楽しめる 女子SPA！
ソロ ウエディング（ひとりウェディング）～恋するドレス～ 株式会社チェルカトラベル
ソロウェディングで自分の結婚観が明確になった。これから一人で暮らしても、何も後悔することはない ランドリーボックス
Beitがブライダルイメージモデルに！「Shining Moments Produced by Beit」内覧会レポート。結婚式場で体験する“ソロウェディング” 4Gamer
2025年の出生数は66.5万人、婚姻数は48.5万組の見通し 日本総研
2025年、令和の結婚式のトレンドは【パーソナライズ婚】！「主役にならない“脱主役婚”」や「自由なドレスコード」、定番の演出を自分たちらしくアレンジする「ちょい足し演出」がキーワードに PR TIMES (株式会社トキハナ)
子ども、45年連続減で過去最少 前年から35万人減の1329万人 Asahi Shimbun
結婚に関する現状と課題について. Japan Children & Families Agency
令和6年度「若者のライフデザインや出会いに関する意識調査」Japan Children & Families Agency