The Japanese Say, 'I Don't"

Everyone seems to be going to weddings lately, but more than a few are suffering through painful divorces (Are there any other kind?)


The divorce rate in Japan is also rising--about two out of every six marriages.  Thinking about this, Hiroki Terai came up with a bright idea.  The Japanese have created rituals for every important aspect of life, seemingly all the beginnings and endings, but nothing for divorce. 

Calling himself the "Charisma Divorce Planner," Terai bought a Divorce Mansion this past April to perform a ceremony for the end of a lousy marriage.

For $606, couples are signing up to say “I do” for a final time in front of friends and family.

And there's all kinds of new rituals too.  

The parting couple meets near a temple and rides in separate rickshaws.  Friends and relatives follow on foot to the ceremony.   There Terai addresses the guests on why the couple has decided to separate without any blunt statements pointing specific blame but generally covering it indirectly.

A spokesman for the couple, usually a divorced friend, wishes them congratulations.  At the end of his speech, people aren't sure whether to appaud or not.  Instead, most of them fidget while waiting for the climax, which is the highlight of the evening:  the smashing of the rings.

“I base it on the image of cake cutting,” Terai says.  It is their “final joint act.”

Holding a hammer with the head of a frog—the symbol of change in Japan—the couple crush both their wedding rings.

Instantly, the mood changes into happiness and relief, and the audience bursts into applause.

Mr. Fujii, who participated in a recent ceremony, felt, “Oh this is the end of it, really.” His wife agreed. “The moment I saw the smashed ring, I said to myself, ‘Yes! That feels so good.”

As of June, Terai’s conducted 23 couples back to the single life.  He says he’s gotten hundreds more requests, but they didn’t reach the final stages because… and this will come as a shocker…

The couples wouldn’t work on it together.