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.

    • @[email protected]
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      354 months ago

      Filling out a form to stop talking to someone seems way more of “engendering negative feelings”.

      Konrad Hermes energy

    • @[email protected]
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      204 months ago

      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.

    • HobbitFoot
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      124 months ago

      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.

      • @samus12345
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        44 months ago

        This is a HUGE deal in aging Japan, so this makes sense.