Currents
March 2016
> continued from page 12
some with high school diplomas and others with college degrees. In return for lifetime job security, the
salary man was expected to place the good of the
corporation over that of his personal life. In addition
to long hours at the office, he was supposed to participate in after-work activities - drinking with colleagues, visiting hostess bars, attending companysponsored activities. Because of this work ethic, the
salary man had very little time for himself and his
family.
This corporate work culture has had adverse
effects on the salary man's wife. She was expected
to run the household, care for the children, supervise
their education, and attend to her husband's needs
when he returned home, exhausted from a long
working day or inebriated from drinking with his colleagues. Because the wife and husband spent little
or no quality time together, eventually they become
strangers.
While many salary men dreamed of their golden
years, their wives dreaded retirement because they would see
their husbands on a full-time
basis. Many resented their husband's bossy behavior. Some
refused to accept the traditional
role of a demurring wife who
deferred to her spouse's every
whim. These dissatisfied women
scornfully referred to their husbands as wet, sticking leaves or
industrial waste.
We Support Our Troops
The legal change in the Japanese pension system has given
these frustrated, often angry
wives an opportunity to end an
unhappy marriage. Of course,
being a divorcee later in life can
be both a financial and an emotional challenge, especially in a
traditional society like Japan. At
the same time, however, the possibility of a silver divorce is makcontinued on page 14 >
13