Middle-Age Divorce in Japan Is (Still) On the Rise

Japan still have a relatively low divorce rate compared to other countries. But new statistics from the Japanese government show that, when couples do part ways, many are doing so later in life.

The Middle-Age Divorce Spike

In the post-war period, divorce rates in Japan were at epic lows. In the 1960s, they were at an epic low 0.67% (number of divorces per 1,000 people in the population). That rose gradually over the decades until the 2000s, when it spiked to 2.10%[1].

Since then, the divorce rate has evened out at around 1.7%. That keeps Japan at the low end of divorces compared to other countries in both the West and Asia[2].

(Also, for the morbidly curious? The largest number of divorces happen in Okinawa, where the divorce rate is 2.52%. The lowest? Niigata at 1.28%. So if you’re in it for the long haul, move to Niigata, I guess.)

One potential reason for the low divorce rates? Fewer people in Japan are getting married. A combination of an aging population, poor economic conditions, and other factors mean more young people are choosing to opt out.

However, one statistic keeps rising: the number of middle-age or late-life divorces. This is measured statistically as couples who divorce after 20 or more years together. This movement first came to light around 2020, where the number of middle-aged divorces was increasing in spite of the overall divorce rate edging down[3].

The latest 2022 statistics show this trend isn’t abating, either. The latest stats from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare show middle-aged divorce hitting 21.5% of the total of all divorces. That’s the highest rate ever[4].

Why The Spike?

So what’s driving this?

FNN interviewed some people on the street to get their take. My favorite was from a woman who said she knew several couples who had gotten divorced at middle age and said: “They got sick of doing laundry.”

Not to discount the laundry factor, but there are also other potential factors at play. Writing for AllAbout, relationship expert Kameyama Sanae tells of one woman who realized her marriage was miserable the day her oldest daughter was born. Her husband would hardly ever carry the kids and barely took them anywhere.

Still, it took her 28 years to get divorced. “I had to think about the economic difficulty. I wanted to see the kids off to college if I could. I couldn’t even send them to prep school with the money I earned from my part-time job.”[5]

This case shows that many people – particularly women – may not want to divorce until the children are grown up. Joint parenting in Japan is a rare phenomenon. This means that, in a divorce, one parent – usually the mother – will bear full responsibility for raising a couple’s kids. (Not that Japanese dads are helping all that much at home in the first place…)

(Some activists are working to change that and make joint parenting more accepted. However, others have pushed back on this effort. Around 8% of all divorces in Japan stem from domestic violence. People who’ve been victimized by their spouses understandably won’t want to keep their victimizer in their life.)

Another relationship expert, Yamazaki Semiko, gave FNN her own two cents on why middle-age marriage is a booming business: “A couple’s history is an accumulation of years. That resentment builds up over time. Couples need to level up, and some people get frustrated when [their spouse] can’t do it.”

In other words: people who’ve been with one another get sick of each other. It’s a story that repeats the world over every day. It’s just happening a little faster in Japan.

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