[Financial Planning for the 100-Year Life] Differences in Perceptions of Securing a Home After Marriage in Korea and Japan

Heavy Burden of Securing a Newlywed Home in Korea
In Japan, Renting Is Respected
Time to Rethink the Obsession with Home Ownership

I had the opportunity to speak with a young Korean office worker who married a Japanese woman. He married a Japanese company employee who had been dispatched to Seoul. Their relationship began with exchanging business emails and eventually led to marriage. One interesting point was that his now-wife never once asked, before their marriage, "How are we going to arrange a home to live in after getting married?" He owned a small, albeit secondhand, apartment, and had been looking forward to proudly saying that he already had a home prepared if she asked. However, she never brought it up.

In Korea, one of the biggest concerns for couples about to get married is "securing a place to live." This issue often leads to arguments and, in some cases, even broken engagements. Wondering if this Japanese woman's case was unusual, I called several acquaintances in Japan to confirm. Their responses were all similar. They said there is rarely any conflict between newlyweds over housing after marriage, so there is no particular need to ask about it.

For newlyweds in Japan, it is considered natural to live in a rental home that matches their financial means after marriage. All that is needed is a deposit equivalent to two months' rent. Since Korea's common jeonse or banjeonse rental systems do not exist in Japan, there is no need for a large lump sum of money. Of course, some couples do purchase a home as their newlywed residence. In these cases, however, they typically take out a mortgage with an average term of about 35 years.

In short, among Japan's younger generation, there is a culture in which two economically independent individuals begin their married lives according to their own circumstances. Most parents do not feel burdened to financially support their children's purchase of a newlywed home. According to a December report last year by Japan's SMBC Group titled "Survey on Awareness and Actual Conditions of Wedding Expenses," the average total cost of marriage?including engagement ceremonies, wedding rings, wedding ceremonies and receptions, honeymoons, and funds for newlywed life?was 4.84 million yen (about 48.4 million won), with the most common arrangement being for both families to split the cost equally. It was also typical for parents to give about 2 million yen as a wedding gift to their children.

The reality of wedding expenses in Korea is markedly different. According to the "2025 Wedding Expense Survey Report" released by the wedding consulting firm DuoWed, the average total cost of marriage was 362 million won. Of this, 58 million won was spent on the wedding itself, while 304 million won went toward securing a home for the newlyweds. Parents on the groom's and bride's sides cover these costs in a 6:4 ratio on average. The groom's parents typically pay about 163 million won, while the bride's parents pay about 83 million won.

When looking only at wedding expenses, there is little difference between Korea and Japan, aside from the addition of customary gifts and food for the bride's family in Korea. The real issue is the 304 million won needed to secure a newlywed home. Among the methods for securing a home, jeonse accounts for 44% and home purchases for 38%, which means a substantial lump sum is generally required. In contrast, in Japan, there is far less pressure to own a home at the time of marriage than in Korea. Choosing not to own a home is also respected as a valid option in Japanese society. This is largely due to the prolonged real estate slump since the 1990s.

The land price index for Japan's three major cities (Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya), a key indicator of real estate prices, started at 100 in 1982 and nearly tripled to 290 at the peak of the real estate bubble in 1991. By 2012, it had dropped to 102, about one-third of its peak, and has recently rebounded slightly to around 120. Currently, Japanese people are not obsessed with home ownership as Koreans are. There is a strong sense of "So what if I don't own a home? I can just rent." Even if someone has financial assets worth hundreds of millions of won but does not own a home, they carefully consider whether to take out a bank loan to buy a house or to continue renting and use the money elsewhere before making a decision.

Low birth rates, population aging, and slow economic growth are progressing even faster in Korea than in Japan. How long will it remain wise to strain oneself to buy a home? It may be time for young people starting new families to take a hard look at their options.

Kang Changhee, Head of the Happy 100-Year Asset Management Research Association