The image of Japanese salarymen working until late, drinking
with colleagues, and then not wanting to go home to their
unhappy marriages is a common one in Japan. Yet Japan is also
well-known for its low divorce rates.. well, at least up until
now that is..! Blokes be aware – times are changing and those
miserable Japanese housewives who have been slaving away in the
kitchen for decades for their ungrateful husbands are about to
get their long-awaited revenge and the divorce rate is set to
sky-rocket from April next year! A Split Pension Payment law
(厚生年金の分割制度) has somehow passed its way through the unhappily-
married-male-dominated Japanese Government, changing the rules
of pension payments from April 2007, allowing divorced (and
disgruntled) wives to get their hands on 50% of the husband’s
pension payouts. Currently, 100% of the pension payments are
made into the “head of the household’s”, i.e. husband’s, bank
account, and he then decides whether or not his wife sees any of
it. Therefore, this was extremely