Japan Offers Male Parenting Class for Single Bachelors

Some single bachelors in Japan are taking unique measures to try to find their future wives, going as far as enrolling in a new male-only parenting class with the explicit aim of helping bachelors portray themselves as marriage-worthy. Most of these men have no partner and no baby on the way, but they’re hoping this course will better their chances of finding their life-long companion. The course involves learning how to bathe and dress a baby, as well as how to understand a woman’s perspective on child-rearing through exercises like wearing a pregnancy suit, according to course organizers. Participants are also taught how to improve spousal communication and they were asked to fill out a worksheet stating traits women were deemed to dislike in men. A recent survey of Japanese people between the ages of 18 and 34, conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security, showed that almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are single. On top of that, data published by the Ministry of Labor showed that men who did tie the knot rarely took paternity leave, tipping much of the burden of child-rearing onto women. Only 2.65 percent of men took paternity leave in Japan during the fiscal year of 2015, a far cry from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal of 13 percent by 2020. The day-long course was the first of its kind to be held in Tokyo.