Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare


(6) Divorces

Regarding trends in divorces and divorce rates, divorces fluctuated around 70 thousands, and divorce rates between 0.7 and 0.8 during 1955-1964. After 1964, they gradually increased and reached 180,000 and 1.51, respectively, in 1983. After a period of decrease to 1988, they began to increase once again, but have demonstrated a downward trend in recent years. Values in 2006 were at 260,000 and 2.03, respectively (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Trends in divorces and divorce rates, 1955-2006

Observing the combined nationalities of wife and husband, according to the nationality of the wife, the percentages of Japanese husband were particularly high, excluding Peru (Table 7).

Table 7. Divorces and percent distribution by nationality of wife and husband, 2006

Nationality of
wife
Nationality of husband
Total Japan Foreign countries
Total Korea China Philippines Thailand U.S.A. United
Kingdom
Brazil Peru Other
foreign
countries
  Divorces (couples)
Total 258 778 254 086 4 692 1 390 1 027 112 44 407 84 150 113 1 365
Japan 243 762 240 373 3 389 927 499 105 39 393 84 98 73 1 171
Foreign countries 15 016 13 713 1 303 463 528 7 5 14 - 52 40 194
Korea 3 154 2 718 436 418 4 - - 3 - 1 - 10
China 5 280 4 728 552 21 521 1 - 2 - 2 3 2
Philippines 4 100 4 065 35 11 1 5 1 4 - 6 3 4
Thailand 885 867 18 3 - - 2 1 - 7 - 5
U.S.A. 65 60 5 - - - 1 1 - 1 - 2
United
Kingdom
27 27 - - - - - - - - - -
Brazil 119 90 29 - - - - 1 - 19 2 7
Peru 100 59 41 - - - - - - 11 22 8
Other foreign
countries
1 286 1 099 187 10 2 1 1 2 - 5 10 156
  Percent distribution of husband’s nationality by nationality of wife (%)
Total 100.0 98.2 1.8 0.5 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.5
Japan 100.0 98.6 1.4 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5
Foreign countries 100.0 91.3 8.7 3.1 3.5 0.0 0.0 0.1 - 0.3 0.3 1.3
Korea 100.0 86.2 13.8 13.3 0.1 - - 0.1 - 0.0 - 0.3
China 100.0 89.5 10.5 0.4 9.9 0.0 - 0.0 - 0.0 0.1 0.0
Philippines 100.0 99.1 0.9 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 - 0.1 0.1 0.1
Thailand 100.0 98.0 2.0 0.3 - - 0.2 0.1 - 0.8 - 0.6
U.S.A. 100.0 92.3 7.7 - - - 1.5 1.5 - 1.5 - 3.1
UK 100.0 100.0 - - - - - - - - - -
Brazil 100.0 75.6 24.4 - - - - 0.8 - 16.0 1.7 5.9
Peru 100.0 59.0 41.0 - - - - - - 11.0 22.0 8.0
Other foreign
countries
100.0 85.5 14.5 0.8 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.2 - 0.4 0.8 12.1

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