The Tough Marriage between Taiwanese and Japanese – the International Marriage that Holds the Highest Rate of Divorce

These years, with the trend of globalization, Taiwan has become more and more international, and there are more and more opportunities to communicate with foreigners. Therefore, cross-cultural marriage has become more and more common around us. However, at the same time, because of the difference between cultures and language, the rate of divorce of cross-cultural marriage is also rising. According to Department of Statistics, Ministry of Interior, among all kinds of cross-cultural marriages in Taiwan, the rate of divorce between Taiwan and Japan is the highest. Especially, the marriage between Taiwanese women and Japanese men held the highest rate- one in 3 to 4 couples will be divorced.
In this report, 12 Taiwan-Japan cross-cultural married couples had been interviewed. On the purpose of the balanced report, opinions from a third-person were also included, such as the friends or relatives of the married couples, scholars who are familiar with certain issue, marriage consultant and so on. In this report, the main focus will be on “what is the difference of the marriage between Taiwanese and Japanese from the others.”
However, since marriage involves great privacy, there were some obstacles and problems during the interview. During the whole project, about half of the couples refused the interview. Eventually, only 22 married people (including 10 couples and 2 people whose spouses weren’t able to be interviewed) received the interview.
Furthermore, I also went to Japan to visit some couples, trying to report the situation of Taiwanese-Japanese cross-cultural marriage in Japan, and pointing out the differences between the situation in Taiwan and that in Japan.
Throughout the interviews, I came to realize that people in cross-cultural marriage may confront certain problems such as language barrier, cultural differences, adaptation to the foreign country and so on; while there are also some special problems the people in Taiwanese-Japanese cross-cultural marriages may face. For example, Taiwanese is rather straightforward while Japanese tend to be reserved. The degree of freedom between these two countries is also different. Taiwan is more open and free so when Taiwanese marry Japanese and thus move to Japan, a rather conservative society, they might face some difficulties in adaptation. Moreover, nowadays, some of the Japanese still think married women should stay at home to take care of the household work while some independent Taiwanese may want to keep their job even after they get married. All those differences may lead to some problems or difficulties in the cross-cultural marriages between Taiwanese and Japanese.
Through the interview, those married couples suggested that to overcome the obstacles and differences in cross-cultural marriage, first, you have to respect each other’s own differences and culture. More than two-thirds of the interviewed couples agreed that the ability of communication is very important. At least one of the couple must master the other’s language. If couples use a third language to communicate, at the beginning they might give way to each other because none of them is native. But as you proceed to further communication, language still plays an important role.
Furthermore, scholars of social science and marriage consultant pointed out that if the couples have similar academic background, their marriages tend to be more successful. If they have similar background, they are more likely to have similar value. Moreover, various kinds of cultural differences are involved in cross-cultural marriages. If the couples have different academic backgrounds, there will be more deviation between them, which will bring more obstacles to their marriages.