I don’t know who to feel worse for the men who are retiring to get dumped or the women that feel compelled ot dump them….keep in mind, as Mink Hippie reported not long ago…Japanese statistically are the least sexually satisfied in the world…maybe its the dawn of a new revolution…watch out for many Mrs. Robinsonniku all you young Japanese guys….
As to the businessmen…probably a great time to invest in strip joints and hostess bars…
cd
It should be a cause for national celebration. The baby boomers who made up the first wave of Japan’s corporate samurai will begin hanging up their dark blue suits next year, and retiring en masse to the suburbs, easing company payrolls and injecting billions in “grey” yen into the economy. The looming retirement of about 6.8 million male baby boomers is something to make everyone happy.
Everyone, it seems, except their wives, many of whom are dreading the prospect of living in close quarters with virtual strangers. “I wanted him to keep working but I’ve accepted now he’s going to come home,” says Hatae Ishizaki, whose 59-year-old architect husband is due to punch his last card in April next year. “I’m just going to spend more time out of the house. I’d divorce him, but it’s too much trouble at my age.”
Not every woman is opting to stick it out. Some media commentators are warning of a deluge of divorces after 2007, once the reality of life with former “salarymen” who have nurtured their careers much more carefully than their marriages begins to sink in.
Independent Online Edition > Asia
