Bridal Pregnancy and Spouse Pairing Patterns in Japan

In this paper, we examined two aspects of recent increases in marriage preceded by pregnancy (bridal pregnancy) in Japan. Using information on 28,973 respondents to the Japanese National Fertility Surveys, we first demonstrated that increases in bridal pregnancy between 1970 and 2002 were concentrated among women without postsecondary education. We then estimated multinomial logistic regression models to evaluate change over time in the association between bridal pregnancy and patterns of educational pairing. Results indicated that bridal pregnancy is associated with a significantly higher likelihood of nonnormative educational pairing and that this relationship has become more pronounced over time. We concluded by evaluating these results in comparative context and speculating about the implications for subsequent family change in Japan.