A survey by the IBJ Marriage Future Research Institute found that around 40% of couples who married through a marriage agency lived in different prefectures. Even when the prefectures differed, the period to marriage was approximately 4 months.
The locations of residence and the time to marriage were analyzed for 9,258 couples who married in 2025 through the IBJ Marriage Agency Network. Couples who married while living in the same prefecture accounted for 57.5%, while couples who married a partner living in a different prefecture accounted for 42.5%.
Looking more closely at the 3,936 couples living in different prefectures, 84.7% married within the same regional block. Long-distance marriages spanning regional blocks totaled 603 couples, or 6.5% of the total.
The number of days to marriage was 124 days for couples in the same prefecture and 120 days for couples in different regional blocks. In both cases, the couples married in approximately 4 months, leading to the conclusion that the difference in distance does not create a significant difference in the time to marriage.
Hokkaido and Aichi Prefecture had high rates of marriages within the same prefecture, while in Kyoto Prefecture, marriages to partners from outside the prefecture reportedly exceeded 60%. Although regional differences exist, cases of couples marrying despite being in a long-distance relationship are also reported.
The survey covered 19 prefectures with at least 200 married couples and is not said to represent all 47 prefectures nationwide.