In Japan, the slang term Dekichatta kekkon (出来ちゃった結婚), or Dekikon (デキコン) for short, emerged in the late 1990s. The term can literally be translated as "oops-we-did-it-marriage," implying an unintended pregnancy. Notable celebrities with these marriages include Namie Amuro, Yōko Oginome, Hitomi Furuya, Ami Suzuki, Kaori Iida, Nozomi Tsuji, Anna Tsuchiya, Meisa Kuroki, Leah Dizon, Melody Miyuki Ishikawa, Riisa Naka and Rie Miyazawa.[1][2] A quarter of all Japanese brides are pregnant at the time of their wedding, according to the Health Labor and Welfare Ministry,[3] and pregnancy is one of the most common motivations for marriage.[4] The prevalence and celebrity profile of dekichatta-kon has inspired Japan's wedding industry to introduce an even more benign phrase, sazukari-kon (授かり婚, blessed wedding).[5]

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  1. ^ Haruna Kashiwase, "Shotgun Weddings a Sign of the Times in Japan," Population Today, July 2002, prb.org Archived 25 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Japan embraces shotgun weddings". The Daily Telegraph. 22 June 2009. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
  3. ^ Brasor, Philip (8 January 2012). "Oops! Pregnant celebs dancing down the aisle". Japan Times. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  4. ^ National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, The Fourteenth Japanese National Fertility Survey in 2010 (October 2011). "Marriage Process and Fertility of Japanese Married Couples" (PDF). Retrieved 13 January 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Ryall, Julian (22 June 2009). "Japan embraces shotgun weddings". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 January 2016.