Japan Strikes a Blow Against Men and Marriage

For Japanese salary men, the reward for a lifetime of long hours at the office earning a good living so their wives and children can be comfortable are... can anyone guess?  A gold watch?  No.  A lavish retirement party?  No.  The correct answer is divorce and loss of half their pensions.

Much like the Canadian man, Wayne Tippett whom I profiled in "So You Think You've Got Problems," a change in Japanese law has hit older men particularly hard.  Much to their surprise, their wives are now entitled to half their pensions.  And guess what those loyal life-partners are doing.  They're rushing to cash in, that's what.  Divorce filings have spiked 6.1% since the law went into effect last April.

Now we all know that many of these wives have raised the families' children almost single-handedly.  Japanese corporate culture is extraordinarily demanding on men's time.  They routinely leave home before sunrise and don't get back until long past dark.  So wives and husbands don't see a lot of each other.  Apparently the Japanese government thinks that's the men's fault, so they're punishing the miscreants.  How could those men be so selfish?

And that's exactly the tone this article takes (The Washington Post, 11/26/07).  Note the barely veiled outrage at the heartless men.  Note that the women are uniformly presented as victims of men and the corporate culture.  Not the guys who work 14-hour days for 30 + years, mind you.  No indeed.

Note too that not a word is said about the lives many of the women lead after the kids are out of the nest.  Do these women try to take up any of the financial slack so the men can work less?  The article doesn't say so if they do, and with the passage of this law, why would they?

I don't object to laws that guarantee a spouse an income commensurate with his/her contribution to the marriage.  But a lifetime of working long days, versus childcare that dwindles steadily as the child matures, shouldn't lose the breadwinner half.

And finally, note the decline in marriage in Japan.  Obviously this law hasn't yet had anything to do with that, but count on it -  it will.

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