Japan's 'posthumous divorce' rise reflects burdens of aging society

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In Japan, the number of people choosing so-called “posthumous divorce” — legally severing ties with a deceased spouse’s family — is on the rise.

According to a report published Wednesday by Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the annual number of filings for “termination of affinity relations,” commonly referred to as posthumous divorce, increased for the third consecutive year, reaching 4,027 cases in 2024.

The number of such filings began rising in 2015, peaked in 2017, then declined through 2021 before turning upward again.

Posthumous divorce refers to a legal procedure in which a surviving spouse submits paperwork to local authorities declaring the end of legal ties with the deceased spouse’s relatives. Consent from the in-laws is not required, and they are not formally notified of the filing. However, the legal relationship between children and their grandparents remains intact.

During the 2010s, many women who had lost their husbands chose posthumous divorce as a way to resist traditional patriarchal expectations or to create emotional distance from their in-laws, according to Nikkei. In particular, some rejected the long-standing expectation that daughters-in-law should continue caring for elderly parents-in-law or managing family graves after their husband’s death.

More recently, however, the motivation appears increasingly practical: avoiding caregiving obligations altogether.

The newspaper cited the case of a woman in her 40s whose husband died in his 50s. She reportedly filed to terminate ties with her in-laws in order to avoid becoming responsible for caring for her husband’s parents, both in their 80s and suffering from dementia.

Japan’s rapidly aging population is also believed to be contributing to the rise in posthumous divorce cases.

Members of Japan’s baby boomer generation — known as the “Dankai generation,” born between 1947 and 1949 — are now reaching their late 70s. According to Japanese demographic statistics, the number of people aged 75 and older reached 20.69 million in 2024.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.