Japan’s retirees increasingly choose divorce after retirement

A 60‑year‑old man in Japan, who received roughly 25 million yen as a retirement lump‑sum, filed for divorce with his wife after 35 years of marriage. Their case illustrates a growing pattern of “senior divorce,” where couples separate after children have left home and careers have ended.

Psychiatrist Hideki Wada argues that longer life expectancy makes staying in an unsatisfying marriage inefficient, promoting the idea of a “second marriage” for retirees. Government data show that divorces among couples married over 20 years now exceed 20 % of all divorces in the country.