Pandemic strains Japanese marriages

‘CORONADIVORCE’

TOKYO• Like many couples, it began when Yui’s husband started working remotely from their small Tokyo apartment as coronavirus cases rose across the Japanese capital.

His round-the-clock presence — unusual in a culture that normally expects people to spend more time at work than at home — left the 30-year-old housewife feeling stressed and awkward.

“I didn’t want to see him all the time,” she said simply.

Yui is clearly not alone. She was among 100-plus husbands and wives who contacted Kasoku, a Tokyobased short-term rental firm, after it launched a new service aiming to help couples avoid a “coronavirus divorce.”

The concept is enterprisingly simple: Kasoku is renting 500-plus accommodation units across the country as “temporary shelters” for those wishing to escape home — with a free 30-minute divorce consultation with a legal expert thrown in for good measure.

The initiative coincides with Japan’s widening coronavirus crisis. The government expanded a state of emergency last week to include the entire nation — a move likely to further increase remote working, still an uncommon concept for many Japanese companies.

A culture of long working hours combined with stagnant gender stereotypes in the home and small living spaces are factors likely to amplify the challenges of self-isolation in Japan, with the hashtag “coronadivorce” trending in the country for weeks.

Yui is one of 25 people already signed up to Kasoku. She moved into a property — 20 minutes by train from her Suginami district home — just days after hearing about the initiative on television, to distance herself from her husband, 34, who works for a real estate IT company.

“As my husband started working at home due to a self-restraint request from the government, he is always home and interferes with my housework, which makes me really stressed,” Yui, who did not wish to be fully identified, said.

“The house is small and he is always there so I can’t be alone, even when it feels awkward. After a long talk, we decided to separate for a while.

“We’ve learned that marriage doesn’t have to always keep you together. When this pandemic settles, we will talk again about our future.”

Keisuke Arai, the chief executive of Kasoku, said: “Most Japanese homes are comparatively smaller than those in other countries. Couples see each other the whole day and this could trigger a small relationship problem.

Domestic pressures on women were also likely to be put under the spotlight.

Yukiko Uchida, professor of social and cultural psychology at Kokoro Research Centre at Kyoto University, said: “In Japan, there is still a gender role and some husbands can neither cook nor clean their house.”