Adoption of adults?

When we say the word, ‘adoption,’ the only picture which comes to mind are cute, tiny little babies. But have heard of adults being adopted?

This might not be happening in India but it was most certainly a surprise to know that it is a very common occurrence in Japan. There, 98% of adoptions are actually adult men, aged between 20-30 years old. Why? In Japan, it is very important, culturally to be recognized as a family-run business. And it is as patriarchal as India where it is only a son who can head the company. Thus with a declining birth date and where there are only daughters, it has been going on for 100’s of years where the CEO adopts his protégée. The executives adopt simply to signify that their company is still “family-run.”

Legal adoption of this kind is paired up with an arranged marriage - known as “omai” - 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, which is “mukoyoshi.”

Toyota is a famous mukoyoshi and so is Maruti; in fact the current serving CEO, Osamu Suzuki is the fourth consecutively adopted son to run the group