Seventy-eight percent of men and 92 percent of women who celebrated their coming of age Friday agreed they would not want to continue married life "if it didn't work out," according to a recent poll by a Tokyo marriage counseling company.

Women, especially, seemed to rank being and staying married lower in the poll, which sought to reveal 20-year-olds' attitudes toward romance and marriage.

The poll covered 200 men and women in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas and was conducted in October by Tokyo-based OMMG Co.

According to the survey, while 82 percent of men and 89 percent of women said they either "definitely wanted" or "hoped" to marry, a majority said that, if married, they "would not want to go to extremes to continue married life if things didn't work out."

"Few people had a specific person in mind as a spouse," a company official said. "Most probably just feel they would like to try out marriage at some point."

More women than men said they would like to continue friendships with people of the opposite sex after marriage, with 75 percent of women and 68 percent of men replying so, according to the survey.