Japan Navigator

Japanese couples are spending themselves silly again on weddings. Couples that held a wedding reception in 2007 spent an average 3.4 million yen, an increase of about 200,000 yen compared to three years ago, as Asahi.com reports.

Japanese weddings have come a long way from the boring, standard affairs that were held in hotels in the past (although these still exist as well). During the bubble economy, expensive restaurants became popular venues. People had become discerning gourmets and wanted better food than the standard hotel fare and they were willing to pay for exclusive French or Italian venues.

[A bride is being groomed for a photo session in a shrine in Kyoto. Photo Ad Blankestijn]

In the 1990s, after the blowing of the bubble, low-key weddings became more prominent. Read: ordinary restaurants with nothing special. Then in 2000 there was the fancy “millennium wedding” boom. And now we are apparently in the period of the “hospitality wedding” show, where couples try to impress their parents and guests with the exciting and unexpected.

In fact, there are two distinct styles of weddings even now - just as in society. One still is the quiet, economical wedding mentioned above, although many couples now opt for a wedding overseas, for example in Hawaii. And the other is the spending splurge.

Wedding planning services of course take advantage of this and try to rake it in by providing exciting ideas such as the “celebrity wedding,” where large Western-style homes are rented for the party. French dining, fireworks and a dvd are all part of the package which will come to more than twice the average mentioned above.

Restaurant weddings now rent all spaces of first-class restaurants, starting with cocktails, than a reception, and finally the multi-course dinner.

Couples try to find unique wedding plans to stun their guests. As they marry later in life than before, they usually have more money to spend.

Kobe’s Kitano is also very popular for weddings after the big wedding of model Fujiwara Norika held there in 2007. People like to take exotic pictures among he old, Western houses. Many wedding halls and fake churches have risen up here and every weekend you see well-dressed people on their way to the numerous wedding parties.