Do Japanese People Know Of A Western Custom, June Bride?

Japan has a rainy season between June and the middle of July. Thus typical Japanese people's image of June would be "wet", "lots of rain", and "humid". None of them sounds fun. Then June had been one of the most unpopular months to get married. 

In old days, during the rainy season marrying couples had to worry about their wedding clothes getting dirty, guests getting wet, and no wedding photos outside. Moreover having a comfortable reception in a wedding hall would be out of the question since air-conditioning in wedding halls were not common. So it was natural for people to avoid June for wedding ceremonies.

Traditionally June had been a hard time for wedding service industry. However, Japanese wedding industry had an idea to remedy the situation. In late 1960s, they started to advertise the Western custom, "June Bride" and said "Women who get married in June will be happy because June is the month of Juno, the goddess who was considered to be a guardian of women's married life!"

It spread quickly all over the country and especially women started to say "Wow, you will get married in June? You are a "June Bride", fantastic!". Now almost everybody knows "June Bride" custom in Japan although it was a completely foreign custom.