30 жастан асқан балалардың ата-анасымен бірге өмірі

Single person who lives with their parents beyond their late 20s or early 30s

A parasite single (パラサイトシングル) is a single person who lives with their parents beyond their late 20s or early 30s to enjoy a more carefree and comfortable life. In Japanese culture, the term is especially used when negatively describing young unmarried women.

The expression parasaito shinguru was first used by Masahiro Yamada of Tokyo Gakugei University in his bestselling book The Age of Parasite Singles (パラサイトシングルの時代), published in October 1999. The catchy phrase quickly found its way into the media and is now a well known expression in Japan. Yamada subsequently coined the related term parasite couple to refer to married children living with the parents of one partner. However, this situation occurs less frequently and the term parasite couples is less well known. This is a traditional Japanese living arrangement, though its prevalence has decreased in recent years.

This situation allows the children to live in considerable comfort, and while many save money, others spend all their income on luxury items, traveling, and other non essential expenses. Many children wish to live with their parents until they marry. The parents, for their part, often enjoy living with their children. Many parents want to protect their children and offer them the best possible start in life. Parents also enjoy the company and the social interaction and try to maintain the relationship. The additional expenses for the parents due to the additional household member are usually small, as the fixed costs such as rent must be paid regardless, and the additional cost for food and other consumables is sometimes negligible. Many parents also see this as an investment in their future, as the children will be more obliged to take care of their parents in their old age (in Japan, it is traditional that children care for their elderly and disabled parents).

A growing number of young women are remaining unmarried in Japan today, a development often viewed as a rebellion against the traditional confines of women's restrictive roles as wives and mothers. The percent of Japanese women still single in their twenties was 30.6% in 1985 and 54% in 2004. Young women's lifestyles instead center on friends, work, and spending disposable income; unmarried Japanese adults typically live with their parents, thus saving on household expenses and increasing the amount of money available to spend on their own entertainment. Sociologist Masahiro Yamada gave these young adults the label "parasitic singles." Some young women reacted by creating business cards with their names and the title "Parasite Single" on them. Japanese media has given heavy coverage to the decline in Japan's birthrate, but the trend continues.

One possible side effect of the parasite single phenomenon is the increase of the average age of the first marriage (though this is also attributable to other factors, such as career prospects and education). While in 1970, Japanese women married on average at age 24 and men at age 27, by 2002, this had increased to 27.4 years for women and 29 years for men. This has also resulted in women having children later in life, and fewer children overall due to the decline in fertility after age 30. Subsequently, while in 1983 there were on average 1.8 children born to every woman over her lifetime, this has decreased to 1.22 children per woman in 2008.

These lifestyles are not confined to Japanese society; similar arrangements can also be found in other cultures. In Italy, parasite singles were offensively called bamboccioni ("grown up big spoiled babies") in 2007 by former minister Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, voluntarily ignoring the situation of a considerable part of the 20 to 30 year old population. In post communist Central Europe, the phenomenon is more accepted, possibly due to socio economic reasons and soaring housing prices. In English speaking nations, the term "basement dweller" has connotations that imply a person lives with their parents because they do not have enough money to move out, and if they had enough money would be living on their own. A different concept of parasite single is found in Brazil, where some individuals are said to have a Paitrocínio (a wordplay between the words pai/father and patrocínio/sponsorship). This word is used not for the ones living in their parents' homes, but for the ones who did leave home, but still rely solely, or majorly, on their parents' financial support. The reasons for leaving home before achieving financial independence vary, but mostly it is due to college or to start a career with small or uncertain initial incomes, such as in arts and sports.