the main theme of "late spring" is marriage: specifically, the persistent attempts by several characters in the film to get noriko married. the marriage theme was a topical one for japanese of the late 1940s. on january 1, 1948, a new law had been issued which allowed young people over twenty to marry consensually without parental permission for the first time. the japanese constitution of 1947 had made it much easier for a wife to divorce her husband; up until that time, it had been "difficult, almost impossible" to do so. several commentators have pointed out that one reason why noriko is still unmarried at the relatively late age of 27 is that many of the young men of her generation had been killed in the second world war, leaving far fewer eligible potential partners for single young women.