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Divorces among couples married more than 20 years accounted for a record share of all divorces in Japan last year, according to government data. Even as the total number of divorces declines, so-called late-life divorces are becoming more prominent. Korea is showing a similar pattern.
One in Four Japanese Divorces Involves Long-Married Couples, Often at the Wife’s Request
Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 8th, based on its analysis of vital statistics from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, that divorces among couples who had lived together for 20 years or more made up 24.2% of all divorces last year, the highest share on record. That was up 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
The Japanese term refers to the end of a marriage between partners who have lived together for at least 20 years. It is similar to the Korean concept of late-life divorce, though Japan defines the category by length of cohabitation.
A total of 179,073 couples divorced in Japan last year, down 6,831 from 185,904 the previous year. The share of long-marriage divorces rose even as the overall total fell. That share first exceeded 20% in 2019 and has climbed since.
Wives appear to be the driving force behind the decision to end long marriages.
According to Japan’s annual judicial statistics, couples married 20 years or more accounted for 26.4% of divorce cases handled by the courts last year. Wives filed for divorce roughly twice as often as husbands.
Both men and women most often cited incompatibility as the reason for divorce. Their secondary reasons differed. Wives mainly cited failure to provide household expenses and physical violence, while husbands cited emotional abuse and a spouse’s relationship with another person.
The Mainichi Shimbun pointed to the spread of social media and changing attitudes toward marriage as key factors.
Social media has made information about divorce easier to find and has allowed people to compare their own circumstances with the lives of others. A weakening of traditional gender roles and declining stigma around divorce have also contributed, the newspaper said.
A growing view that domestic violence between spouses is not merely a private matter was also cited as a factor behind the rising share.
Divorces Among Koreans 60 and Over Also Hit Record; Marriages of 30 Years or More Top the List
A similar pattern is emerging in Korea. While the total number of divorces is falling, divorces among couples aged 60 and over have risen to the highest level on record.
Data released in May by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), operated by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, showed 88,130 divorces in Korea last year, down 3,021 from the previous year.
That marked a sixth straight annual decline and the lowest figure in 29 years, since 79,895 divorces were recorded in 1996. The Ministry of Data and Statistics attributed the trend to population decline and earlier drops in the number of marriages, which feed into divorce statistics with a lag.
Divorces in which both spouses were 60 or older, by contrast, totaled 13,743 last year, up 943 from a year earlier. That was the highest number since the data series began in 1990.
Their share of all divorces also reached a record 15.6%. The figure stood at 13.4% in 2022, fell to 13.0% in 2023, then rose to 14.0% in 2024 and 15.6% last year.
Divorces after long marriages also stood out when measured by the duration of the marriage.
Among couples who divorced last year, those married 30 years or more made up the largest group at 17.7%, followed by marriages of five to nine years at 17.3% and four years or less at 16.3%. The share for marriages of 30 years or more was the highest since the data series began.
The average age at divorce also rose. It was 51.0 for men and 47.7 for women last year, each up 0.6 years from a year earlier. Compared with a decade ago, the average age rose 4.1 years for men and 4.4 years for women.
Analysts attribute the rise in late-life divorces in Korea to a combination of factors: population aging, longer life expectancy, greater economic independence among women, and shifting social attitudes toward divorce.