• Sun. Apr 21st, 2024

Japan Subculture Research Center

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Scary Tales From Japan’s Marriage Graveyard: My Wife Divorced Me Over “Frozen”

In Japan a married women took “Let it Go a little too literally and allowed her husband’s lack of interest in the popular Disney movie Frozen to ice their six-year marriage. According to the popular web forum for unhappy married people Kikonsha no Hakaba・既婚者の墓場 (The Graveyard of The Married/The Marriage Graveyard), a man claimed that his wife wanted to divorce him because he didn’t care much for the movie when he finally gave in and saw it with her. 

On an on-line forum, "The Marriage Graveyard" a Japan man claims his wife divorced him or rather "let it go"  because he didn't appreciate the Disney film FROZEN.
On an on-line forum, “The Marriage Graveyard” a Japan man claims his wife divorced him or rather “let it go” because he didn’t appreciate the Disney film FROZEN.

“When I asked my wife who would go to the cinema many times why should found it so interesting, she told me that I was defective as a person because I didn’t understand how good this work is…. And on top of that, she asked for a divorce and stormed out of the house,” he wrote.”By the way, do you think that it’s possible in this world to say that you want a divorce for this reason. This isn’t limited to just movies but also a discrepancy in hobbies)?”

For the husband, the declaration of divorce was a cold blow. Responders to his post were baffled, because the husband claimed to have a decent salary, no debts, and no hidden children. He also worked in a department in his company that is made up of men, which meant that he had no lovely female coworkers to tempt him into straying from his wife. One commenter brought up the possibility of his wife having a male “friend” and said, “If you make that much money hire a detective!”

Eventually, the man decided to hire someone in a detective agency to follow his wife and watching over his in-laws’ house.

There’s no way to verify this story, but it certainly has made rounds on the Internet.  It’s a little hard to believe this story, but people have divorced for silly reasons. During the Bubble Years, a term called “Narita Rikon・成田離婚 (Narita Divorce)” came into being because some newlywed couples would divorce as soon as they would come back to Japan, usually after a disastrous honeymoon.

A Disney movie shouldn’t be the main reason to “flake” out on a marriage. The movie incident was likely the icing on the cake of a multitude of problems that the wife might have found in the marriage. Check out this video to get a good idea of what their marriage must have been like. Guess who is which character.

The poster never discusses their sex life or whether one of them was frigid in bed. But judging by statistics, there’s a 50% chance it was a sexless marriage. Maybe she was unhappy with his “icicle” because he had problems getting it “stiff” and wanted to meet a real (snow) man. Anyhow, if that is the reason, it doesn’t look like this  frozen relationship will thaw anytime soon. It too bad he couldn’t some way to make her warm up. Maybe he could have taken her to karaoke and serenaded her with songs from the movie to prove his love? And if that didn’t work, he could always have sang her, Cold As Ice and wowed her with his coolness.

The story may be as fictional as the movie (but we couldn’t help but crack a few puns!). But it does hit on a universal truth about marriage in Japan: they are often stone cold dead long before one party asks for divorce.

9 thoughts on “Scary Tales From Japan’s Marriage Graveyard: My Wife Divorced Me Over “Frozen””
  1. Perhaps the man should have immediately divorced her after she said that Frozen is “good work”.
    Just kidding.
    In all seriousness now, Frozen is just like the Lion King or any other older Disney movie. They repeat themselves.

    But as to the core, it’s really baffling on what reasons some women seek a divorce. Makes me wonder if they even know what “Love” is. Same goes for men, though.

  2. Well, the marriage probably wasn’t going too well to begin with would be my guess…?

    Small stuff: Narita rikon (成田離婚) is the word you’re looking for. Also, 趣味 is more like “tastes” in this context.

  3. So basicaly, let me list up the reasons why this (possibly fictionnal) guy’s wedding was supposed to be rock solid:
    – salary
    – no debt
    – no hidden children
    – no female coworker

    Basicaly, if his wife was anything other than a golddigger, there was probably some other points of interest in marriage for her that he was completely oblivious about (affection, sex, family time, common topics of interest, you have it).

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