"How to Find a Happy Marriage" Oct. 2011 with pt2

Sorry for the wait! Here comes part two. There's still a lot to cover. I'll probably end up skipping over some parts.
As I wrote before, with is a Japanese magazine targeted at young women in their 20s.
Picking up where I left off, readers comments about various areas of their boyfriend's lives...

I don't know why the font was so off in the previous post. For as long as I've had blogger, I really don't understand it.

Only 0.8% of men are "above average"?!
The more conditions you have, the further away from your ideal you become

There are many women that lament that they cannot even find a "regular" man to be with. Nishiguchi has the following to say; "In most cases, when someone says they want a 'regular' partner, they haven't yet thought about what marriage life might be like. When I ask for more details about the average person, I get this laundry list of conditions."

"For example, only 1/2 of men have an above average income. If you have 7 'above average' conditions, then that's 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 ...multiply that by 7 and you get just o.8%".

Choose a partner that meets your values, don't be pressured by society

You're going to be left with high hopes if you have lots of conditions for a partner, but continue to say that 'regular' is fine. If you hold onto that ideal, you'll never find a partner. "The more someone cares about what their friends and those around them think, the more likely they are to have lined up a bunch of conditions. Before focusing on various requirements, spend some time thinking about what would make you satisfied when you get married."

Less Than 1/4 of Japanese Men Make Over 4 million* yen a Year!
In response to the question, "What's the yearly income you want your partner to have?", more than half of our readers answered, "More than 4 million yen".
However, data shows that even within the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, only 23% of men of marriageable age have a yearly income of 4 million yen or more!

Nishiguchi- It's rare for a young man to have a high income. Your salary goes up after middle age. There's nothing 'regular' about 4 million yen a year!

Ishikawa- Men's salaries are also going down. Don't just focus on his income. Look at your combined income and your choices for partners will open up.

Yearly income for single men (25-34) in the Tokyo Metro Area
Less than 2million yen*/year: 33.8%
2million to 4million yen/year: 43.2%
4million to 6million yen/year: 19.5%
over 6million yen/year: 3.5%

Men with an income of over 4 million yen a year make up just 23%!

with questionnaire: What do you want your partner's income to be?
It doesn't matter/less than 2million yen/year: 7.2%
2 million to 4 million yen/year: 40.1%
4 million to 6 million yen/year: 44.1%
over 6 million yen/year: 8.6%

52.7% of respondents want someone who makes more than 4 million yen/year!

*If you think of 100 yen as equal to $1US, then 4 million yen is $40,000.
The income results were based on a report published in 2002...which probably means that these are statistics from 2001 at the least.

From what I've seen, most jobs for university graduates go from 160,000 yen/month to 210,000yen a month ($1,600 to $2,100/month). This is *BEFORE* taxes are taken out.
Even if you can start out in the 200,000s/month, you'd be making about $25,000/year...again, before taxes.

To give an example of expenses in Hiroshima:
-rent (1 bedroom apartment with bathroom/kitchen): 35,000 to 65,000yen/month plus a deposit of up to 6 months rent and a fee of up to 1 million yen to the landlord
- electricity: average of 3,000 yen/month (based on me)
- gas: average of 3,000 yen/month (again, based on me)
- water: 3,200 yen every other month
- internet: 5,000 yen/month (wireless)
- cell phone: 5,000 yen/month
- food: 40,000 yen/month

just the above, with the cheaper rent will eat up most of your paycheck. if you have a car, you're paying 30,000 yen a month for parking (if you don't have your own home with a parking space).
if you have to commute by train, that's 15,000 yen or more a month.

If you just want to get by, less than 3 million a year could be doable...if you are debit free.
If you want to have room to take a vacation some time, 3 to 4 million is ok.
If you want to get married and start a family, more than 4 million is good (imo).

More to come later! I've met with some serious stuff lately, so writing on blogger is and even lower priority m(_ _)m