Why are so many anime series fascinated with incest?

[SeijiSensei]

I resuscitated this topic to post this article on rates of marriage between cousins: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...their-cousins/

The reported rate for Japan is 7.6 percent. That's considerably higher than most Western countries (the US is at 0.2 percent, for instance), but much lower than countries in North Africa or the Middle East.

[Darthtabby]

My understanding is that cousin marriage was historically very common in Japan, but that it's prevalence declined rapidly after World War II in large part due to increasing urbanization. It is very rare among young people.

It's also my understanding that there was a movement against cousin marriages due to fears about genetic abnormalities and some families do frown on it, but that in general it's still considered a lot more acceptable in Japan than it is in a lot of part of the West. A good illustration of this would be that one of the recent Japanese Prime Ministers (or is it the current one?) was married to his cousin, but on the other hand their family apparently opposed their marriage.

[SPARTAN 119]

That was my understanding with regards to Japan and cousin marriage, that it used to be more common than it was, however, you still occasionally have an anime where the idea that a cousin is still as "legitimate" choice in a relationship is a plot point.

For instance, there is that infamous scene in Elfen Lied where Lucy loses her shit and murders Kouta's sister, as well as a bunch of other people after she discovered Kouta's cousin was, in fact, female, contrary to what he told her. Now she could just have overreacted to his lying to her, but it seemed to imply that she considered a female cousin to be "competition". That said, in that case we are talking about someone who spent much of her life in a lab being subject to horrific experimentation, so Lucy doesn't really have a "normal" understanding on the world.

Still, there are examples in anime depicting more normal scenarios of cousins being considered as "legitimate option" in modern (or in this case near-future) Japan, such as Sword Art Online, where Suguha rationalizing her interest in Kirito by the fact she found out as a child that she's actually his cousin, not his sister.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

My understanding is that cousin marriage was historically very common in Japan, but that it's prevalence declined rapidly after World War II in large part due to increasing urbanization.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Occupation had something to do with this as well.

The article I linked to from FiveThirtyEight has quite of bit of detail including this rather interesting paragraph:

And the consensus about health risks appears to be shifting. In 2002, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) published the findings of a task force set up to look specifically at the risks for offspring of first cousins. They estimated that health risks for those children were about 1.7 percent to 2.8 percent higher than for children born to unrelated parents. They concluded that “There is a great deal of stigma associated with cousin unions in the United States and Canada that has little biological basis.”

[TJR]

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

My understanding is that cousin marriage was historically very common in Japan, but that it's prevalence declined rapidly after World War II in large part due to increasing urbanization. It is very rare among young people.

Would that have anything to do with the decline in arranged marriages? It was the traditional norm, and familial pressure often dictated who married whom.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I resuscitated this topic to post this article on rates of marriage between cousins: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...their-cousins/

The reported rate for Japan is 7.6 percent. That's considerably higher than most Western countries (the US is at 0.2 percent, for instance), but much lower than countries in North Africa or the Middle East.

Is it just me, or there is a few countries that have 50% rate O_O

Originally Posted by TJR

Would that have anything to do with the decline in arranged marriages? It was the traditional norm, and familial pressure often dictated who married whom.

I thought it was due to the reduce in influence of royal family? Like in the past , the royal families (in any monarchies really) tends to marry within the family anyway, so they kinda normalize/honor the practices.

Then there is the drop in religious belief in modern age, as even Shinto religious belief, there's a couple of God cousins marrying each other too?

[TJR]

It was a strategy to preserve a particular socioeconomic hierarchy (which is why it remains common in highly stratified societies). Royals frequently intermarried for the same reason.

The concept of marrying for love is relatively new to Japan.

[Ugoki]

Because otakus have a fetish for that.