Abstract
Late-life divorces in Japan, i.e., by couples married longer than 20 years, have become increasingly common since the mid-1990s. It had been widely speculated that a 2007 pension division law for divorcing couples would result in a significant increase in divorces.
But has it? It may be a fallacy. This is the starting point of this chapter. Five major findings have emerged: (1) Late-life divorces have increased dramatically over the past 30 years. (2) No significant increase in late-life divorce cases and/or rates has been detected since 2007. (3) Hikes in late-life divorce cases are due primarily to the “baby boomers” born between 1947 and 1949. (4) The longer a marriage lasts, the less likely couples are to divorce. (5) Reasons for late-life divorces differ from those expressed for divorces in general.
The majority of late-life divorces today are initiated by wives. An increasing frequency of divorces initiated by wives indicates the enhanced autonomy of women in marriage. It is expected that this trend will continue in the future. The major reason for it would be their dissatisfaction with the traditional sex role identification. Wives who pursued sex roles primarily in domestic arena for over two decades have come to realize their total lack of autonomy. In husband-wife relationship, wives have been placed under the control of husbands and have neither been treated as partners on the equal footing nor individuals. In other words, the marital relationship between husbands and wives of late-life divorces reflects the realization of women to seek for the autonomy from the ruler and the subordinate situation. It reflects the enhanced autonomy of women in marriage. Desire for autonomy of these unsatisfied wives, however, could not always be materialized. In fact the introduction of the 2007 pension division law for divorcing couples seems to have a minimal impact for women to pursue late-life divorce. Given that reality, now is the time for Japanese couples married for many years who may wish to reconsider and to reconstruct their marital relationship for the better.
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- 1.
The survey was led by Jacqui Gabb, an Open University senior lecturer in social policy, and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Researchers surveyed more than 5,000 participants of all ages, sexual orientations, and statuses.
- 2.
Crude divorce rates (CDRs) in other industrialized nations were as follows: the United States, 4.7 in 1990, 4.2 in 2000, 3.4 in 2009 (US Census Bureau 2013), and 3.6 in 2011 (US CDC 2013); Russia, 4.7 (in 2011, UN 2013, Table 24); Denmark, 2.8; Finland, 2.4; Germany, 2.2; Hungary, 2.2; Austria, 2.0; Belgium, 2.5; Sweden, 2.5 (CDRs for European nations are those of 2012 by Eurostat 2014); Korea, 2.28; Singapore, 1.81 (both in 2012, MHLW 2014a, b: 52). All of the CDRs used throughout the present study are derived by dividing the total number of divorce cases by one thousand population in the given year (CDR = divorce cases/1,000 population). These rates are based on the population as a whole, rather than the population of newly married or existing married couples. Because of the nature of the statistical data and the need for comparability, it has been common to present CDR based on per one thousand population. However, divorce rates are more accurate if they are based on the existing marriages at any given point in time. Therefore, a modified divorce rate (MDR) has been suggested, in which the divorce rate equals the divorce cases divided by the number of existing marriages (MDR = divorce cases/existing marriages × 100). Thus, age-standardized divorce rates for the married population in any given year for males and females are adjusted by eliminating the differences of age structures in order to compare them. The author derived the Pearson correlation coefficient between these two divorce rates, and it is significantly high (r = .732, p < .001); therefore, the CDR rather than the MDR has been adopted throughout the current study.
- 3.
In examining divorces by legal procedure with respect to the age of husband and wife, the above points have been confirmed. Total divorce cases by court procedure in 2004 were 67,688 (25 %) vs. total divorce cases in 2004, which were 270,815 (100 %) (for husbands r = .911***, p < .001; for wives r = .919***, p < .001). Both husbands and wives pursue divorce most frequently during the 30–34 age bracket (husbands, 19 %; wives, 21 %), followed by the 35–39 age bracket (both husbands and wives: 18 %). The majority of husbands and wives pursue divorce before they reach 40 (husbands, 52 %; wives, 60 %), and only a very small proportion do so after 60 years of age (husbands, 8 %; wives, 6 %). Furthermore, examinations of the proportions for divorces by 5-year age brackets reveal that they hit a peak at 30–34 and thereafter decline continuously for both husbands and wives.
- 4.
- 5.
Divorce by arbitration differs from conciliation as practiced in Western societies. The former facilitates the divorce through the assistance of arbiters. Conciliation, on the other hand, assists in averting divorces.
- 6.
“Shihou Toukei Nenpou: Heisei 24-nendo Ban” [Annual Reports of Japanese Legal Statistics: 2012]. http://www.courts.go.jp/search/jtsp0010List1 (accessed April 30, 2014).
- 7.
Table 14 of the Annual Reports of Japanese Legal Statistics—Family Courts Edition: 2012. Accessed April 30, 2014. (http://www.courts.go.jp/sihotokei/nenpo/pdf/B24DKAJ14~16.pdf).
- 8.
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Kumagai, F. (2015). Late-Life Divorce in Japan Revisited: Effects of the Old-Age Pension Division Scheme. In: Family Issues on Marriage, Divorce, and Older Adults in Japan. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-185-5_6
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