Around 50 percent of women think work gets in the way of married life, according to a survey of women registered with a Tokyo-based temporary staffing agency, highlighting the difficulties women face in trying to balance work and family in Japan.
The women who said they "somewhat think" that work becomes a hindrance to marriage accounted for 37.7 percent, with an additional 10.9 percent saying they "strongly feel so," the survey by b-style holdings Inc.'s research arm said.
Conversely, 32.8 percent of women responded that they "do not really think" that work becomes a hindrance to marriage, and 14.6 percent said they "do not think so at all."
Four percent said they did not know.
The survey, conducted from May 11 to 18, was based on responses to a questionnaire given to 549 women who were married or had been married.
Asked how their husband's understanding of their work affects the level of their happiness, 67.4 percent said they think their happiness "increases with such understanding and decreases without it."
That was followed by 20.4 percent who said they think their happiness "doesn't change even if there is understanding, but their happiness decreases without one."
One respondent, a temporary staffer in her 40s, said that while a woman can handle marriage and work, it gets difficult to do both once a child is born. "Women need some kind of support."
A worker in her 50s stressed the importance of the husband understanding his wife's situation. "A woman cannot make both work and marriage work without her family's understanding or cooperation."
Keitaro Kawakami, an adviser at the research institute, said one of the most important factors that affect marital happiness is how much the husband listens to his wife's wishes regarding work.
