98% of all Japanese Adoptions are Employers adopting adult men.

In Japan, 98% of adoptions are actually adult men, aged between 20-30 years old — not children.

"In Japan, there is a several-hundred-year-old tradition in which businesses adopt their executives so companies or institutions are "family-run" groups. In other words, bosses adopt their employees.

Where it all started

It all started hundreds of years ago when Japan’s civil code dictated how a family's wealth would be passed on after the death of the family elder.

Money and assets were traditionally passed through male lines in the family — starting with the eldest. However, if a family did not have any blood-related sons, the law said that adopted sons could carry on the family name, business, and receive the wealth upon the death of the head of the family.

In households which only have daughters, a family would look to adopt a son, so they could fulfil the role of carrying on the family business as well as receiving and being custodian to the family's cash and assets.

Nowadays, legal adoption of this kind is paired up with an arranged marriage — known as "omiai" — of a daughter, meaning the adopted son becomes son and son-in-law at the same time because he changes his name to the wife's family name ("mukoyoshi").

In Japan, there are even matchmaking companies that recruit voluntary adoptees for Japanese corporates.
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So when it comes to marriage and carrying on the bloodline, it looks like adult adoption is a practical way to keep the family line going."

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