In Japan, getting married is one of life's big events, and many young people hope to get married and start a family with someone in the future. Nowadays there are various types of married life, but the stereotypical image of the family, in which men work outside to feed the family and women take care of the home, is still alive among the Japanese. To examine the concept of Japanese marriage, I want to discuss the main characteristics of the Japanese gender system in married life and the institution of marriage in Japan. In Japanese marriage and marital roles, I think many people still believe that “men work outside the home” and women do housework and childcare” is the ideal gender system in the family. In fact, it is reasonable for couples to have men work outside in terms of income because it is proven that women's average income represents 60% of men's earnings, even though gender discrimination in the workplace is prohibited by law ( Ishii-Kuntz 2003: 211). I think the reason why many people still think that “men work outside and women do housework” is because couples who think about getting married are at the age where they see the typical Japanese family in their childhood. Recently, many women work as full-time workers even after getting married, but when compared to about 30 years ago, when the couple's parents got married, most people may have thought this was the case. It is natural and ideal for men to work outside and women to become housewives when couples get married. They see their parents and receive some influence from their parents who think this way. There are many women who decide to live differently from their mother by pursuing their own career or dream in addition to getting married like those shown in “…… middle of paper…… people are not willing to change their usual way of thinking or life that are naturally taught and generated by the previous generation. There are some people who think that the old way of thinking should be changed to adapt to the globalized world, but most of the people who lead this country, I mean politicians or governors, are people who are deeply trapped by these conventional ideas. I thought I wanted to get married to someone someday, but it's really vague and I found some negative aspects of marriage in terms of gender roles in married life. It is a very valuable opportunity to think about my future life more seriously and positively than before, even if it is not realistic for me as a college student now. I hope that Japanese society or systems related to marriage will be changed so that I can experience my marriage positively in the future.