Posthumous divorce’s technical but less popular name is a “notification of marital relationship termination” (inzoku kankei shuryo todoke) which means one is officially severing ties with the family of a deceased spouse. What’s particularly strange about it is that it doesn’t really serve any purpose for a vast majority of people aside from a government-approved official statement that someone finds their in-laws unbearable.
That’s a pretty good purpose. Everybody can save face by taking part in bureaucracy. That sounds like I’m being facetious, but I’m serious. Think about the alternative: avoiding them awkwardly all the time or telling them to screw themselves directly, which will engender negative feelings. At least with the bureaucracy, the sentiment gets filtered through a impartial, uncaring medium.
Filling out a form to stop talking to someone seems way more of “engendering negative feelings”.
Konrad Hermes energy
“oh no, not the crack slam!!”
To me it feels more like someone has gone out of their way wayyyy further to involve bureaucracy and make it official when just saying “I would rather not” would do.
Yeah this just feels like government approved passive aggression.
Sounds like Japan
Exactly
I would think that it might not serve a government purpose, but it could serve a social one.
For a lot of societies, care of the elderly is supposed to be performed by the children. A marriage has the implication that care isn’t just for their own parents, but the in-laws as well. I expect a divorce like this servers that familial connection, people no longer have to care for their in-laws.
This is a HUGE deal in aging Japan, so this makes sense.