Yuichi Ishihara had been vaguely thinking about popping the question to his girlfriend, Kumiko Ueda. But that was before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Yuichi Ishihara had been vaguely thinking about popping the question to his girlfriend, Kumiko Ueda. But that was before the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The disaster changed not just his way of thinking, but that of countless couples across the land.
Matchmaking agencies report a sharp increase in new members since the quake and tsunami-driven nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture northeast of Tokyo.
Wedding reservations at Tokyo hotels are up, as are sales of engagement and wedding rings, party dresses worn by guests at celebratory events and even kimono for unmarried young women.
A wedding boom is clearly in the offing, and businesses over a wide spectrum stand to benefit.
"Kizuna," which means bonds with loved ones, has become the new buzz word.
Ishihara and his fiancee visited the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo in the capital's Shinjuku Ward on Oct. 7 to put the finishing touches of their wedding ceremony, scheduled to be held there next month.
They had talked about getting married months ago, but the earthquake forced Ishihara's hand. The scale of the disaster, some 20,000 people dead and missing, left him feeling he had no time to waste.
On March 11, when all public transportation had ground to a halt and millions were stranded, Ishihara walked 10 kilometers home from his office in Tokyo's Musashino and drove back to collect Ueda, dropping her off safely at her home.
Her parents, impressed by Ishihara's devotion, gave their blessing to the wedding.
At the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, wedding reservations made from April to September are up 11 percent over the same period a year ago. "The experience of the March 11 disaster pushed many couples who had considered getting married to deciding to get married," said the hotel employee in charge of wedding ceremonies.
Sales of marriage-related items have also been higher at the Yokohama store of leading department store chain Takashimaya Co.
The store has seen a 20-percent year-on-year increase in sales of engagement rings since the disaster.
"Demand has also grown for products related to family celebrations and anniversary events other than wedding ceremonies," said a company representative.
The store also recorded a 20-percent rise from a year ago in sales of "furisode," a type of kimono with long sleeves worn by unmarried young women as well as daughters attending coming-of-age ceremonies in the year they turn 20.
Outfits for Shichi-Go-San, a traditional Japanese rite of passage and ceremony for 3- and 7-year-old girls and 3- and 5-year-old boys in hope of their healthy growth, are also up.
At the Sendai store of leading retail developer Parco Co., sales of party dresses have risen 30 percent from a year ago since April, one month after the temblor.
At Parco's Ikebukuro store in Tokyo, sales of wedding rings jumped 20 percent year-on-year in August.
"Demand for wedding items has clearly risen," said a company representative.
Leading marriage agency Zwei has posted a more than 10-percent increase in newly enrolled members each month since May.
Masahiro Miyatake, president of the agency, said: "We have not seen such continued rise in recent years, and this reflects a new trend in the industry following the March 11 disaster."
In keeping with the feel-good kizuna buzz word, major supermarket chain Daiei Inc. and Aeon Co. have extended their lineups of the "kotatsu" heaters and Japanese deep-pan cooking items, by which family members get together or eat together.
Kotatsu is a low, wooden table covered by futon or a thick blanket with a heater inside. It makes for intimate gatherings of family and friends during winter.
In anticipation of more people returning home during the year-end holiday season, Aeon started accepting orders for its first "osechi," or traditional Japanese new year delicacies, under its Topvalu private brand.
Nationwide department store chain Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd. and Takashimaya expect to see higher sales of osechi foods than last year.
According to a post-quake survey on changes in relationships conducted by Dentsu Communication Institute Inc., the percentage of those who chose the answer, "I would like to keep good relationships with my family and friends" has gradually risen from 63.9 percent in April to 66.4 percent in June and to 69.5 percent in September.
Yuko Kitakaze, chief researcher of the institute, said: "Since the March 11 disaster, people have increasingly been leaning toward the family-oriented way of thinking, which is reflected in the trend of young people wanting to marry soon and another trend of young married couples living with their parents.
"I think the bonds solidified following the temblor will likely spread beyond the boundary of family to include society as a whole."
A 67-year-old man, who just moved from quake-hit Sendai to a rural area of Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture, said, "It is the best for family to live altogether, after all."
His 89-year-old mother had been living alone in a house built 40 years ago, which is old by Japanese standards.
Given her anxiety over continuing aftershocks, the man invited his mother to move in with him at his new home.
The house he built is known as Kizuna, a two-family home built by local housing company Takakatsu Co.
The Kizuna home is designed for survivors of the March 11 disaster with lower prices and shorter construction periods.
Ikuo Chiba, president of the company, said, "We heard from many people that feelings of kizuna deepened after the quake, so I adopted the term as a brand name."
In Miyagi Prefecture, about 170,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged in the March 11 disaster. Takakatsu received twice the numbers of orders for the entire fiscal 2010 only in the first half of fiscal 2011, with sales of two-family houses over the same period quadrupling the figure of the previous fiscal year.
Asahi Kasei Homes Corp., a leading housing maker, saw a 2-percentage point average increase in monthly sales of two-family houses after the quake, compared to the same period of a year ago.
Yoshihiko Matsumoto, head of the maker's research institute on two-family homes, said, "Through the March 11 disaster, people re-evaluated the importance of family in their lives and this led to changes in the choices of who they live together with under the same roof."
(This article was written by Eiji Zakoda and Kaname Kakuta.)