No chance for romance: Corporate culture, gendered work, and increased singlehood in Japan AKIKO YOSHIDA Abstract This paper is part of a larger study that investigates the cause of in- creased singlehood among women in Japan. On the basis of findings from qualitative research this paper argues that Japanese corporate prac- tices and culture have severely limited women’s opportunities for roman- tic encounters. In-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted in the Tokyo area with forty never-married and married women aged 25 to 46. The data were analyzed inductively. The findings reveal that long work hours for men, and in some cases for women, impeded opportunities for women to form romantic relationships in several ways: (i) men were seldom available; (ii) many married women expressed discontent with marriage due to the absence of husbands; many single women held am- bivalent views toward marriage after having heard negative stories from married friends; (iii) some single women found it unappealing that cor- porate men could talk about nothing but work; and (iv) single women with careers regularly worked overtime and their devotion to work was regarded as “unfeminine”. Additionally, workplaces are often segregated by gender, further limiting opportunities for single women to meet poten- tial partners. This paper sheds critical light on the culture and practices of Japanese corporations, arguing that such culture and practices create serious consequences for individuals’ lives. Keywords: Japan; singlehood; gender; gender segregation; corporate cul- ture; employment segregation; romantic relationships; workplace re- quirements; qualitative research; lifestyle. Contemporary Japan 23 (2011), 213-234 18692729/2011/023-0213 DOI 10.1515/cj.2011.011 © Walter de Gruyter