TOKYO — The bride wore a birthday cake of a dress, with a scalloped-edge bodice and a large hoop skirt. A veil sprouted from her black bob. Moments before the wedding began, she stood quietly on a staircase, waiting to descend to the ceremony. “Wow,” she thought. “I’m really doing this.”
东京——新娘穿着一件生日蛋糕般的婚纱，扇贝形边缘的上身，下面是大箍衬裙。婚礼开始前，她静静地站在楼梯上，等着下楼步入会场。“哇，”她想，“我真的要做这件事了。”
This was no conventional wedding to join two people in matrimony. Instead, a group of nearly 30 friends gathered in a banquet room in one of Tokyo’s most fashionable districts last year to witness Sanae Hanaoka, 31, as she performed a public declaration of her love — for her single self.
这不是一场庆祝两人共结连理的传统婚礼。相反，去年在位于东京一处时尚地区的这个宴会厅里，近30位朋友聚在一起，见证了31岁的花冈早苗（Sanae Hanaoka，音）的独身宣言——公开表达对她自己的爱。
“I wanted to figure out how to live on my own,” Hanaoka told the group, standing alone on a stage as she thanked them for attending her solo wedding. “I want to rely on my own strength.”
“我想弄清楚怎么靠自己生活，”她独自一人站在台上，在感谢朋友们来参加她的单身婚礼时对他们说，“我想靠我自己的力量。”
Not so long ago, Japanese women who remained unmarried after age 25 were referred to as “Christmas cake,” a slur comparing them to old holiday pastries that cannot be sold after December 25.
就在不久前，年满25岁仍未结婚的日本女性会被称为“圣诞蛋糕”，被贬低成那些在12月25日后就无法再被售出的过时节日甜点。
Today, such outright insults have faded as a growing number of Japanese women are postponing or forgoing marriage, rejecting the traditional path that leads to what many now regard as a life of domestic drudgery.
今天，随着越来越多的日本女性开始推迟或放弃结婚，拒绝走上一条如今被许多人视为一种家庭苦役的道路，这种公然的*辱侮**已经逐渐消失。
The percentage of women who work in Japan is higher than ever, yet cultural norms have not caught up: Japanese wives and mothers are still typically expected to bear the brunt of the housework, child care and help for their aging relatives, a factor that stymies many of their careers.
日本工作女性的比例比过去任何时候都要高，然而文化规范却没有跟上：日本的妻子和母亲通常仍然仍被认为要承担家务、照顾小孩和帮助年迈长辈的重任，这是阻碍她们许多职业发展的一个因素。
Fed up with the double standard, Japanese women are increasingly opting out of marriage altogether, focusing on their work and newfound freedoms, but also alarming politicians preoccupied with trying to reverse Japan’s declining population.
不满于这样的双重标准，越来越多的日本女性干脆选择不结婚，转而专注于自己的工作和新获得的自由，但这也让那些一心想要扭转日本人口下降趋势的政治人士感到担忧。
As recently as the mid-1990s, only 1 in 20 women in Japan had never been married by the time they turned 50, according to government census figures. But by 2015, the most recent year for which statistics are available, that had changed drastically, with 1 in 7 women remaining unmarried by that age.
日本政府的人口普查数据显示，就在1990年代中期，日本在50岁之前未结过婚的女性还只有二十分之一。但到了2015年，也就是最近一次有统计数据的年份，情况已经发生巨变，有七分之一的女性在那个年龄段仍然未婚。
And for women ages 35 to 39, the percentage was even higher: Nearly a quarter had never been married, compared with only about 10% two decades earlier.
而对35岁至39岁的女性，这一比例甚至更高：将近四分之一从未结婚，相比之下，二十年前这一数字只有10%左右。
The change is so striking that a growing number of businesses now cater to singles, and to single women in particular. There are single karaoke salons featuring women-only zones, restaurants designed for solo diners, and apartment complexes that target women looking to buy or rent homes on their own. Travel companies book tours for single women, and photo studios offer sessions in which women can don wedding dresses and pose for solo bridal portraits.
这种变化如此突出，以至于越来越多的商家如今开始迎合单身人士、特别是单身女性的需求。有设女士专区的单身卡拉OK厅、专为单身食客设计的餐馆，还有专门针对女性自己购买或租住情形的公寓楼群。旅游公司会给单身女性订购行程，摄影工作室会为女性提供披戴婚纱、拍摄单身婚纱照的机会。
