I don't know man. After 7 years, the only wedding in Japan I went to was my own, and I didn't even get married in Japan. I was invited to one other one (didn't make it b/c I was out of town), and attended 1 nijikai my last year before going. I guess all of my friends were too afraid to committ. Even so, I was invited to way more weddings when I lived in Texas.

And I think if you'll look at statistics, you'll find that marriage isn't as popular (at least not in practice) as it was a couple of decades ago. (I'm going off what I've heard, not researched, so I could be proven wrong here).

I think what it comes down to is that with the internet getting pretty big in Japan in the last 5 years (namely due to broadband finally making it there) you just hear about it more.

Oh, yeah -- I think you high-balled the donations.
30,000 is for a pretty close relative, or maybe the person's boss. I think the standard for a "friend" or relative that's a cousin or more distant is about 10,000. Of course if you're rich, you have to give more. The parents get hosed the worse, forking up big bucks... money the groom will never see.