Japan News This Week 11 June 2017

今週の日本

Japan News.
Japan, Short on Babies, Reaches a Worrisome Milestone
New York Times

Okinawa Gov. Onaga announces suit vs. Japan gov't to halt Henoko base
The Mainichi

Studio Ghibli to open 'Totoro' theme park in Japan
BBC

Japan nuclear workers inhale plutonium after bag breaks
Guardian

Constructing the Construction State: Cement and Postwar Japan
Japan Focus

Last Week's Japan News on the JapanVisitor blog

Statistics

In the past decade, the number of Japanese widows who have filed for divorce from their deceased husbands has risen 1.5 fold. In 2015 there were 2,783 such cases.

You read that correctly.

A woman whose husband has passed away goes to the municipal office and fills out the paper work, applies her hanko (official stamp), and becomes officially divorced from her dead husband.

The main reasons for this are: 1) to cut ties with her mother-in-law or other relatives, 2) to not have to take care of/clean the family grave. 

Sources: Asahi Shinbun, June 5, Evening Edition, page 1

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