Is it true that Japanese monks may get married?
听说日本僧人都有家室，是吗？

Originally, Japanese monks did not have wives and children. In 12th century, Shinran (亲鸾), the founder of Jodo Shinshū (the True Sect of Pure Land)—a branch of the Pure Land Sect, advocated that people could take up Buddhist practice along with their wives. This initiated a way of life among monks of getting married and having children. But for centuries, this custom was confined to this sect alone. After the Meiji Reformation (1868), the custom of marriage became popular among other sects of the day. Today with the exception of a few monks of minor sects, who keep celibacy, the overwhelming majority of monks get married, their Buddhist profession passing on to their offspring. Thus the institution of popularizing the Buddhist cause by lay Buddhists came into existence. However, this state of affairs applies to male priests only, while the nuns in Japan today continue to lead monastic life with abstinence as before.
原来日本僧人都是没有家室的。公元十二世纪时期，净土宗的一派——净土真宗的创始者亲鸾倡导带妻修行，开始娶妻生子。其后几百年中这个制度只限于这一宗派。到明治维新后，僧人结婚的风气便在其它各宗派中流行起来。现在除少数宗派的少数僧人仍然过独身生活外，绝大多数僧人都有家室。他们的子孙世袭僧人的职业。这便形成了以在家佛教徒担任弘传佛教事业的制度。但是这种情况只是属于男僧人，今天日本的尼众还是出家如律持戒的。