The number of divorces at retirement is skyrocketing. Find out why.
Yurie, Yoshika, Maria
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Script
W:What are you going to do after you retire? Are you planning to spend your second life in peace with your wife? Well…… in Japan, more and more wives in middle-age are getting to think of divorce since 2007. Why? Now a mother and a daughter are talking over the telephone. Let’s listen to them.
A: Hello, it’s me.
B:Oh, hey Mom. What’ up?
A:Just fine. How are you doing？ ……How’s your newly-married life going?
B:……I don’t know. It has only been a few weeks since we got married. How about you? Are you doing well with Dad ?
A:What ?
B:Dad. Your husband. Is he doing fine?
A:Huh ! I don’t know about such a sodai-gomi .
B:Hey, don’t compare him to a broken fridge or something like that.
A:But since he retired from his company, he stays all day at home and watches TV and surfs the Internet ! He never works. He never helps me with housework. He just sleeps, eats, drinks, and goes to pachinko and loses his money!
B:Uh….
A:I’m fed up with working at a part-time job and preparing his meals and cleaning his room and clothes! I cannot stand a man like that! Now I want to divorce with him!
B:Mom!! You must be kidding!
A:No, I’m serious. I feel irritated to imagine my life always with him. I hear that this is a sign of Retired Husband Syndrome.
B: Retired Husband Syndrome? What is it?
A:The idea of retired husbands being at home often makes their wives depressed and physically sick. I must get away from him before I fall sick.
B:I…I didn’t know that you disliked him so much.
A:Indeed I respected him. He had earned money for us and was a good father for you, for sure. But I realize that a good father is not always a good husband after completing raising children.
B:But, but what are you going to do with money? You cannot live on your part-time job.
A:Oh, there’s no problem. The new system introduced in 2007 in Japan enables wives to receive up to 50 percent of their husbands’ employee pensions as well as the retirement money! I have a rosy future ahead of me!
B:Hmm…. You know a lot of things. …Are you sure you won’t change your mind?
A:I’m sorry, but I’m sure. I hope you will be happy with your new family from the heart. Don’t be like me.
B:I see…thank you.
A:Good. I have to go to work now. Take care. Say hello to your husband.
B:…Okay, bye.
B:Oh my goodness! I really am your daughter, Mom. I divorced just 3 days ago. He was a perfect lover but not a good husband at all!