Why 98% of adoptions in Japan are adult men, not children

In Japan, 98% of adoptions are adult men aged between 20- and 30-years-old, according to governmental data referred to in the book Freakonomics, and a series of credible media outlets.  

Business Insider reports that it stems from a tradition where businesses adopt their executives in order to ensure businesses are ‘family-run’. A number of Japan’s most famous companies, including Toyota, Suzuki and Matsui Securities have remained ‘family-run’ businesses because of the adoption practice.

This dates back several hundred years, when Japan’s civil code stated how a family’s wealth should be passed on after a death of an elder.

Money and assets were conventionally passed down via the eldest males in the family. However, if a family did not have any blood-related sons, adopted sons could carry on the family name, business and receive the wealth if the head of the family passed away.