Japanese Couples Embrace Nontraditional Marriage Forms

On Feb. 21, Yomiuri reported that some Japanese couples are adopting nontraditional marriages, including 'friendship marriages' without romance and symbolic unions with AI partners. The piece profiles a same-sex friendship-married couple raising a child via fertility treatment and a woman who 'married' a conversational AI. Experts say these trends reflect changing expectations about trust, companionship, and longevity in modern Japan.