Analysis of Male Annual Income Reality from 20,000 Marriage Hunting Data: "High Income = Advantageous for Marriage Hunting" is Not Always True; Age Becomes a Severe Factor for Men.

IBJ Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Kenjiro Tsuchiya), which produces the highest number of successful marriages in Japan*¹, has released the results of an analysis on the relationship between male annual income and marriage success rates as the fourth installment of the "2025 IBJ Marriage Report," based on big data from approximately 20,000 marriage-hunting individuals.

While the strong perception that "higher income leads to a greater advantage in marriage" generally exists, this survey revealed that the marriage success rate does not proportionally increase with higher income; rather, it plateaus once a certain level is exceeded.

IBJ Marriage Report: https://www.ibjapan.jp/mirai-lab/seikon-hakusho/538/

Summary
- "Higher income is not always advantageous"; the marriage success rate plateaus at annual incomes of 8 million yen or more.
- The largest group of successful marriage-seeking men falls within the 5 million to 6 million yen annual income bracket. As age increases, so does the competition.
- Marriage success is influenced by multiple factors, including age, in addition to annual income.

Marriage success rate plateaus at 8 million yen or more. "High-income men = immediate marriage" is not always true.

The analysis results show that male marriage success rates surpass the overall average when annual income exceeds 5 million yen, rising a step further to 41.3% for incomes above 6 million yen. However, for annual incomes of 8 million yen or more, there is no significant further increase, and the marriage success rate plateaus (fluctuating between 43% and 46%).

This indicates that even with high annual income, the advantage in marriage success remains within a certain range.

The "5 million to 6 million yen annual income bracket" is the largest group of successful marriage-seeking men.

Analyzing the annual income distribution of men who successfully married, the "5 million yen bracket (20.4%)" and the "6 million yen bracket (18.2%)" account for a significant proportion, totaling approximately 40% of the overall number. This result suggests that the annual income of successful marriage-seekers is not concentrated in high-income brackets but is rather distributed across multiple income brackets, implying that a combination of factors beyond just income influences marriage success.

Annual income alone is not enough. Men are also entering an era where "age" is evaluated.

As men get older, the proportion of those with annual incomes of 7 million yen or more increases, reaching approximately one in three for men in their 30s and over half for those in their 40s and beyond. The reason for the plateau in marriage success rates, even with high incomes, can be attributed to the influence of "age." As men age, the number of strong rivals in terms of income increases, tending to raise the hurdle for marriage success.

In such an environment, contemporary marriage-seeking activities tend to prioritize not only economic power but also factors like "closeness in age (shared values)" and "youth/physical ability to raise children and do housework together." As a result, even if income is high, the difficulty of matching may increase depending on the balance with age, suggesting this as a factor contributing to the plateau in marriage success rates at a certain level.

Survey data released weekly

The "2025 IBJ Marriage Report" is scheduled to be released every Thursday for a total of 15 weeks.

Going forward, we will sequentially announce data from perspectives not previously analyzed, such as "Are high-earning women avoided?" and "The reality of age-gap marriages and the necessary financial capacity."

▼View the "2025 IBJ Marriage Report" article list here.

Public site: IBJ Mirai Lab
URL: https://www.ibjapan.jp/mirai-lab/category/seikon-hakusho/

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Detailed explanations of this data, provision of additional materials, and interviews with personnel are available.

IBJ Public Relations: pr@ibjapan.jp

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Data overview and prerequisites for this report
●Data prerequisite: All data in this report is based on activity results within "marriage agencies." Terms appearing in the article such as "omiai" (formal meeting) and "number of relationships" refer to activity processes unique to marriage agencies.
●Survey conducted by: IBJ Inc. (IBJ Mirai Lab)
●Survey target: Activity data of 19,112 members who were active in the IBJ marriage agency network and achieved marriage.
●Target period: January 1 to December 31, 2025 (target period for the 2025 edition data).

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