Getting married in Australia v Japan

Hi all, I appreciate that their is a lot of info out there however I find myself going in circles. I'm Australian and my partner is Japanese, in Australia on a working holiday visa. His visa expires in about seven months. We plan on moving to Japan after his visa ends so an extension of visa is not required. My question is, in which country would it be easier and less costly to get married? Taking into account that between us we will only have a bit over $15,000 in savings. In either country it would just be a means of going to the city office and then a small affair with family. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

If you say the legal procedure is simple in either case, then the rest if up to you (or to your families) (1) how much of a big wedding thing they might want, and another consideration may be (2) how easy it is to get the other country to recognize the marriage from another country.

I can't say much about (1), because I've never had any big wedding, but check what each side of your family expects: maybe holding a small party in Australia might be less costly and his family might enjoy a visit there, but sometimes there are expectations about who pays for the airfare and things. And the family once back in Japan might expect a formal banquet with the greater family, etc. So check with him about what he/his family might expect. And also check with yours too :)

(2) Japanese authorities easily accepts non-Japanese marriage; you bring your original marriage certificate (get a few extra copies just in case), do a translation into Japanese (no official translation needed; the Japanese spouse can do the translation), and the Japanese spouse takes it to the city hall, when you move to Japan. His marriage to you according to Australian law, for example, gets written into his family register. (For the exact documents you need to bring to city hall to do this, check with his city hall, or the one in the city you plan to live.)

Hi Sam,

I got married with my Japanese husband last year in kyoto. (We live in Australia) and we had very very small wedding in a fancy a place with only less than 10 people. So it depends on many factors! We end up paying around $10,000 just for the venue including makeup,hair, food and drinks plus a photographer. I guess it depends what you want and need and how many people are attending:) Sorry if this wasn't so helpful post but I am more than happy to share details of the place. The guy who helped us spoke great English so I could understand some of the arrangements as well

We had a Shinto ceremony at the shrine in Shiogama which was great; they had different packages to choose from with different costs from affordable to more expensive. At the end of the ceremony we had rented a large room at the same shrine and had sushi delivered.
Everybody thought it was great and very affordable in the end but the bottom line was that we organised it all ourselves.