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Changing Divorce in Japan: With Special Attention to Regional Variations

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Family Issues on Marriage, Divorce, and Older Adults in Japan

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Abstract

Changes, continuities, and regional variations in Japanese divorce are examined using historical, archival, and current national- and prefecture-level statistical data. Findings suggest that the institution of the Japanese divorce currently differs widely from one region to another. The northern part of the farming region in Tohoku and Hokuriku highlights the continuities sustaining the traditional nature of the Japanese culture. Similarly, the study identifies a long-existing unique cultural trait in the southern part of Kyushu and Okinawa, in which people tend to consider divorce as a natural course of one’s life, hence a high divorce rate. Analyses reveal that divorce rates in Japan differ significantly, from time to time and from one prefecture to the other; in some cases there are significant differences within the same prefecture. It is due to the feudal domain system which was established in 701. Characteristics of the people in each district are significantly affected by the Han dynasty that was in control there. These historical and cultural factors, difficult to measure, affected the emergence of regional variations in divorce in Japan. Nevertheless, most divorces occur during relatively early stages of marriage. Regional variations of such characteristics as socioeconomic factors, cultural factors, existing family patterns, and urban-rural differences interact with community and family traditions and seem to determine whether or not to dissolve marital relationships. In developing family policies in Japan, it is important to remember Japan’s unique historical and cultural background in each region. For this very reason, it is believed that this chapter has significant policy implications for the future of Japanese divorce and the family.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This section depends heavily on the author’s earlier works, with the statistical data updated (Kumagai 1983: 86–94; 2008: 50–58).

  2. 2.

    No official demographic statistics are available for the years 1944, 1945, and 1946 due to WWII.

  3. 3.

    The phenomenon of expelling the wife is called yome oidashi, in which most commonly the in-laws drove the wife out of the household. When the in-laws disliked the son’s wife, they could expel her, and she was not allowed to resist. Confucian filial piety was the basic moral code of the traditional Japanese family.

  4. 4.

    Although both husband and wife were granted the right to divorce under the Meiji Civil Code, the reality was far different. The wife’s right to divorce was considerably restricted. It was only after the enactment of the new Japanese Civil Code in 1947 that the wife was accorded an actual right to divorce.

  5. 5.

    For the case of the United States, the duration of first marriage for those whose first marriage ended in divorce in 2010 was 8 years (men 8.2 years and women 7.9 years) (US Census Bureau 2013).

  6. 6.

    This section heavily depends on the author’s earlier work (Kumagai 1983: 102–04), with the statistical data updated.

  7. 7.

    Bokushi Suzuki (1770–1842) was a successful merchant of Chijimi cloth in Shiozawa, Echigo. At the same time, he possessed a keen insight into the areas of ethnography and geography and, as an essayist, wrote the snow landscape of Echigo. As a successful merchant of Echigo-Chijimi, he oftentimes made business trips to Edo. It is said the original idea of Hokuetsu Seppu came to Bokushi Suzuki’s mind when he was 30 years of age, and it took four decades to complete the entire work.

  8. 8.

    The website entitled “To-Do-Fu-Ken betsu tokei to rankingu de miru kennminsei” [Characteristics of prefectures through statistics and rankings] lists 300 life-related indicators with real values, rankings, and standard deviations by prefecture. Furthermore, the website shows the interrelationship of 47 prefectures with each other. http://todo-ran.com/ (accessed April 25, 2014).

  9. 9.

    Of the total marriage cases (67,892) brought to 50 family courts throughout Japan in 2012, 49,156 cases (72.4 %) were done so by wives (Secretariat of the Supreme Court of Japan 2013, Table 14).

  10. 10.

    It was 1972 when Okinawa was returned to Japan by the United States. Thus, divorce statistics for Okinawa were not included in 1960.

  11. 11.

    Special Edition of Weekly Magazine, PRESIDENT, June 17, 2010, issue. Shusse-Kekkon-Okane wa kenminsei de 9-wari kimaru [Ninety percent of successes in business, marriage, and earnings are determined by the characteristics of the prefecture of one’s origin]. Tokyo: PRESIDENT-sha. The section depends on its “Kenminsei rankings” [Rankings of various indicators by prefecture], pp. 136–141.

  12. 12.

    The annual consumption rate of Shochuu (per 1,000 population) of Miyazaki prefecture in 2010 was the highest of all 47 prefectures (12.03 litters) followed by Kagoshima (10.44), Kumamoto (10.28), and Kochi (9.54). Source: http://grading.jpn.org/area450006.html, and http://grading.jpn.org/Divzei1008016.html accessed May 31, 2014.

  13. 13.

    This section has been adopted with some modifications from one of the author’s publications (Kumagai 2008: 74–75, 94–95).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kyorin University, Tokyo, Japan

    Fumie Kumagai

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  1. Fumie Kumagai
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Kumagai, F. (2015). Changing Divorce in Japan: With Special Attention to Regional Variations. In: Family Issues on Marriage, Divorce, and Older Adults in Japan. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-185-5_5

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