The Life of a Pinay Marrying a Japanese Guy

Marrying or being married is one of the biggest decisions a person can make. Marriage is more than a wedding ceremony. There is an adjustment period afterwards. You need time to know the person you will spend the rest of your life with. You also need to adjust from being single to a married. What more if your husband is of a foreign nationality with a different culture and norm such as a Japanese guy? How will your married life be like? To answer these questions, I asked some of my friends who found love and got married to Japanese guys.

Pasalubong

Many would attest that a Pinay marrying a Japanese guy will result to a mixture of major differences including family ties. My friend told me once that her husband used to question why she brings a lot of ‘pasalubong’ whenever she visits the Philippines. But as time goes by, her husband understood that it is a customary way for Filipinos to show love to family, relatives, and friends. And now, her husband even helps her buy ‘pasalubong’.

Supporting your Family in the Philippines

Another friend of mine shared how her husband questioned why she needed to support her younger brother’s schooling. They would often argue about this. There are even times when she sends money to her parents and sibling without her husband knowing. We all know that the Japanese people are very thrifty when it comes to spending money because of the high cost of living in Japan. But after explaining that her brother is not yet capable of working because he is still an undergraduate, her husband eventually understood.

Still another Pinay friend’s story which amazed me a lot is about her husband asking her to teach him eat balut, kwek-kwek, adidas, Betamax, and other street foods that we Filipinos love to eat. Japanese guys are very loving husbands and fathers. They do care about family relationships and will exert effort to learn about Pinoy culture too.

These Pinays who married Japanese guys I’ve cited above can rate their marriage between 80%-90% in terms of satisfaction. It’s definitely not perfect. But there’s no such thing as a perfect marriage anyway regardless of who you marry.