Adultery in Japan

Adultery is often far more tolerated among couples in Japan than in other countries. Especially older women accept that their husbands will shop around occasionally.

When the shoe is on the other foot, though, things work out differently…

A Kanagawa public official, Gen Noda (47), recently suspected his wife was having an affair. No man to take this lying down, he began following his wife.

Soon enough he rumbled her entering a “hotel” with another man, a company employee. Despite the flagrant adulterer’s younger age, the cuckold wouldn’t stand for this effrontery — and promptly thumped the man.

Sadly, what would be a great tale of samurai spirit ended when the “victim” went to the police, leading to the Noda’s arrest. Fear not, his career may now be in ruins but the Japanese internet has apparently rallied to his support, commending his chivalric actions.

So there you go… Who says romance is dead in Japan? It’s alive and kicking.

When it comes to adultery in Japan, as the movie Shall We Dance? depicted, woman, on the other hand, often hire private detectives to follow their naughty husbands around. One popular agency are the all-women “hit squad” style investigators, who advertise themselves almost like secret police task forces! Hell, apparently they even have helicopters to help them track down errant husbands!

Following the March 11th earthquake, some quasi-psychologists came out and said that it had increased the tendency for women to have affairs — living for the moment in an uncertain world — but there are of course no facts to support this.

There does seem to be some double standards here. Take the case of Mona Yamamoto, a rather talentless TV personality, whose fame mostly rests on her habit of having affairs with married men. It takes two to tango and she certainly doesn’t strike me as a femme fatale by any standards. However, the blame is always on the hapless Mona for these shenanigans.

Below is a snap of Mona on a date with a politician, Goshi Hosono, who, being married, got away scot-free while she lost her job. She later cultivated this image as a “brainy” girl unable to resist the men and could continue her TV career. However, more scandals followed and, since finally marrying someone, Mona is no longer in the public eye at all…