If you have a Japanese husband/wife (boyfriend/girlfriend) and if their behaviour is sometimes strange such as sending a text to someone else frequently, or meeting someone often, you could guess he/she is cheating on you.
However, the majority of Japanese people seem serious and faithful and you possibly don’t have images of them cheating and you could get puzzled.
In fact, there is a certain number of people who has an extra relationship in Japan as well.
In this article, I’d like to cover the following matters.
- Cheating culture in Japan
- Trigger of cheating
- The reason for cheating in Japan
- The result of cheating in Japan
After reading it I hope you will understand the overall Japanese cheating culture and the tendency of the Japanese towards cheating and help you how to tackle your partner’s possible cheating behaviour.
Let me introduce myself a little. I am Hiro from Tokyo and I was born and raised here and well understand overall Japanese culture including cheating customs.
Cheating culture in Japan
There is a cheating culture in Japan for a long time ago.
Cheating in the Edo period
For example, cheating frequently happened in the Edo period (1600-1868) as well and secretly couples often met inside a shrine.
There were strict rules prohibiting cheating in that era, and if a husband kills a cheated wife and her cheating partner, the husband never gets punished.
However, there were still many adultery cases and some couples even committed suicide together and believed to be together in their next life as well.
Reference: https://search.yahoo.co.jp/amp/s/dot.asahi.com/amp/wa/2018020900012.html%3Fusqp%3Dmq331AQGsAEggAID
Modern cheating culture
If you watch the news in Japan, you will see a lot of scandalous news of Japanese celebrities cheating, and it is commonly seen in Japanese media and you might be wondering how many general Japanese people have such a cheating experience.
Based on the poll done by Japan sex survey (Questionnaires were answered by 5,029 people in 2020), 57.9% of Japanese men had experienced cheating on their lovers or spouses (having intercourse with affair partners).
In contrast, 46.3% of Japanese women have that experience.
If you are concerned about a Japanese wife scandal, please refer to the below article.
You might feel surprised to see the percentage.
Reference: https://www.jfpa.or.jp/pdf/sexservey2020/JexSexSurvey_all.pdf
Trigger of cheating
Now you could wonder triggers of Japanese people cheating.
Based on research (by 300 Japanese married women who had experienced cheating aged 30-49 in 2016) by a detective agency MR the trigger of cheating is as follows.
| Trigger of cheating | percentage |
| Job-related relationship | 53% |
| Friends | 15% |
| Website | 13% |
| Ex-boyfriends | 13% |
| Introduced acquaintance | 8% |
The most trigger of cheating is job-related relationships such as colleagues, supervisors, subordinates, and business partners.
Recently matching app has been popular and some of the app can be used even for married persons, and it could increase more in the future.
Reference: http://prnavi.jp/pr/others/20160801/54966/
The reason for cheating in Japan
There are various reasons why Japanese men and women cheat, so I’d like to share the reason for cheating based on age, and the case of husband and wife.
The reason for cheating based on age
The reason for cheating varies according to age.
The reason 20s cheating
The reason 20s Japanese cheat is simply to have more fun and have lack of responsibilities as a result of cheating.
Recently SNS has provided opportunities for extra relationships among the 20s.
The reason men cheat is simply to fulfil their sexual appetite, whereas the reason women cheat is not the same as men but to fulfil the satisfaction ( to be away from loneliness) which couldn’t be filled by their current boyfriends.
The reason 30s-40s cheating
The ratio of 30s-40s men cheating is rather high as well.
At those ages, men tend to have less passion for their partner and have less stimulation and start to see negative parts of them only.
Further, if they have kids, they possibly have a more unstable relationship because most Japanese ladies are frustrated with their partners not to join raising kids and they often quarrel.
Also, Japanese men tend to be busy at work and have important positions (such as becoming managers, etc.) and it seems to attract other ladies and which leads to adultery relationships.
Whereas, women in their 30s to 40s tend to be busy raising little kids first and then gradually have free time when their kids grow up going to school by themselves.
When the women become free and their husbands are still busy at work, those women start to do new activities or join communities, another man looks attractive to them and it end up having extra relationship.
The reason 50s cheating
When they become 50s, their kids are independent and the relationship between husband and wife is mature or really fed up with each other.
Especially 50s men tend to have more income than average and it attracts other ladies and this lead to an auditory relationship.
The reason Japanese husbands cheating
I’d like to share why Japanese husbands cheat.
Their relationship with their wives is not well
A married man often tells his affair partner that his relationship with his wife is not working well.
It could be like his excuse to approach another lady, but there are a lot of cases their marital relationship is ended already.
A typical Japanese case is that the husband usually doesn’t come home soon after working and never does housework and child care at home and the wife is disappointed in him.
The affair partner could also expect the man could divorce soon in that situation and it could end up in a lot of trouble.
A current wife and an affair partner are different
Some cheating husband consider their wives are important partners in their families and supportive of them.
Japanese married women tend to do hard work of housework and childcare and many of their husbands tend to trust their wives,
but they no longer consider their wives as attractive ladies and rather see the wives as mothers of their kids.
Those men tend to like other women outside of their family and end up cheating.
Opportunities to see a lot of ladies in a workplace
If there are many female co-workers in their working places, there could be a lot of chances to be in an extra relationship.
Being co-workers, facing to each other almost everyday and there are a culture of drinking together with them in Japan lead to inappropriate relationship.
Some ladies approach married men
Some ladies prefer dating a married man because their similar age men looks a little childish and a married man looks trustful and having responsibility.
Also for married women, dating a married man seems suited just having fun in an extra relationship and trying not to ruin each other current family.
The reasons Japanese wives cheating
You might be wondering why Japanese wives cheat as well and the possible reasons are as follows.
Unsatisfied with a current husband
If spending time together for many years, almost all couples don’t keep romantic relationships with each other anymore and see each other’s negative parts.
Then many Japanese women could be frustrated by their current husbands.
There could also be sexlessness between them.
Therefore cheating could happen to fulfil their demand.
To cover loneliness
There are some wives who want to cover loneliness by finding an adulterer relationship.
Japanese wives are usually very busy doing housework and raising kids (usually Japanese husbands tend not to help with house chores due to their hard work at office) and their routine is monotonous, and there is no moment of the heart beating and racing that they experienced when they were unmarried.
Then some wives wanted to have stimulation of their daily life and they end up cheating.
Want to be treated as ladies
Being a woman, many ladies want to be treated as a lady nevertheless of their age.
However, their husbands couldn’t be seen as the opposite sex and the husbands also don’t regard their wives as ladies if they spend time long together.
Japanese couples usually tend not to show much affection (such as saying “love you”, holding hands or kissing) to each other after marriage and having kids.
However, once you are outside, many men treat married women as a lady and some men could even approach them and some of the ladies could feel comfortable and could start an extra relationship.
Cannot reject men’s invitation
Actually, many Japanese men consider married Japanese women attractive.
To be honest there are a lot of men who want to have adultery relationships with married women. Some Japanese married men have issues of being sexless due to bad relationships with their current wives and want to fulfil their sexual appetite by approaching married women.
If both sides share complaints towards current spouses it could possibly develop an adultery relationship.
Actually, married women are usually considered to be kind and have depth which attract many men.
Seriously be in love with another man
Married women are of course human beings, and they have the possibility to be in love with another man except for their husbands.
Recently the number of working married women in Japan is increasing and usually, there are a lot of males in their working places.
Also not only working places but also gathering sports, PTA or any club activities, there are a lot of chances to see attractive men.
By continuously meeting those men there could be a possibility to be in love with them.
No hesitation to cheating
Some Japanese married women don’t have any hesitation to cheat and wish to love anyone even after marriage freely. Some of them could be romance addicts and some of them have too much sexual appetite and they couldn’t be satisfied by their husbands.
Those women tend to seek emotional satisfaction rather than handling sex drive.
Also, if you are concerned about Japanese women who seek men, please refer to the below article.
The result of cheating in Japan
There are a lot of reasons of cheating and I’d like to share what could happen after cheating in Japan.
Breakup with partner
If cheating is found by their partners it is highly likely to be divorced in Japan.
Japanese people never allow partners to have an extra relationship they tend to feel being betrayed by their partners.
If there is any scandalous news of celebrities in Japan, the celebrities popularity is dramatically decreased and a lot of Japanese people sympathies the betrayed partner.
Being sued
If cheating is found by your partner, it is likely to be sued in Japan. If it end up in court, your surrounding (friends or co-workers) also notice you cheated and you possibly lose trust in society or working place as well.
If you hid that you are married and built an extra relationship, you are likely to be sued by your adultury partner as well.
Pay compensation
Adultery is not a crime, but it is an act for divorce condition under Article 770 of the Civil Code.
The article states that you can request a divorce “when your spouse has been unfaithful”.
The compensation amount could be 1 million to 5 million yen (US$7,500 to US$37,500) depending on the relationship status (If the relationship is already bad from the begining, the amount could be low) or having kids or not.
Being fired by your company
Cheating itself is not the reason for being fired by your company but if you cheated with your co-workers, business partners or customers, and incur loss due to that, you might be fired by your company.
If you build an adulterous relationship with them, it could affect the business relationship between the companies, and the relationship could be broadcasted by the media as scandalous news or make negative harmony in working place.
Therefore, the company could decide to fire those persons who incur loss from those illicit relationships.
Conclusion
In this article, I explained the cheating culture in Japan, and you might find unexpectedly many Japanese people are cheating.
I hope you will understand Japanese people’s tendency of cheating and well consider how you act if your partner is strange.
Thank you for reading this article till the end.
Would you like to seek a genuine Japanese partner? If so, “JapanCupid” could be the choice. Please refer to the below article for more information.
If you are concerned about whether Japanese people date foreigners, please refer to the below article.
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