Japan’s National Chauvinistic Husbands Association

Yes, the National Chauvinistic Husbands Association really exists in Japan. Apparently a new divorce law, effective since April, gives women the right to half of their husband’s pension fund when they divorce. That means a lot of unhappily-married women will suddenly be able to survive a divorce, and so the husbands have had to start learning how to keep their wives happy.

When I lived in Japan, I learnt two things from the stories of my students: divorce was uncommon in Japan, but marriages were often unhappy. Or perhaps that’s the wrong way to express it. I’d say the expectations that women had of a marriage were not high. I had students who’d saved money leftover from the household budget alloted by their husbands and secretly bought English lessons. They even have a word for this secretly-saved money. Something’s wrong there.

A great article in the Washington Post called Learn to Be Nice to Your Wife, or Pay the Price has some fascinating examples of Japanese men who are now learning to be better husbands. One sent his wife flowers on her birthday after 38 years of never buying her a gift. Another man has progressed to being able to say “I love you” if he’s drunk.

To finish: one tip from the Chauvinistic Husbands Association that is hilarious (and would make the world a lot easier for women) is this:

A sound strategy for arguing with one’s wife: “I can’t win. I won’t win. I don’t want to win.”