Sodaigomi? Oh, To Be Japanese

Remember that song by Tompal Glaser: Put Another Log On the Fire in which a guy wants his girl to do the wash, fix some food, fetch his slippers, change the tire on his car and then explain why she wants to leave him? No? Well, it was a classic in a sense that Rick Springfield never was. Anyway, Japan seems to have "invented" something in response to that kind of attitude; only they are for real. It's titled "R.H.S." and it's a malady suffered by huge numbers of midle-aged women. In fact, up to 60% of married, middle-aged women in Japan are said to be suffering from "Retired Husband Syndrome" according to today's Washington Post. (I kid you not, as Jack Paar would have said)
That segment of Japanese male society is accustomed to going to work at dawn, working, hanging out with friends, coworkers and others, then returning home late at night expecting dinner, well-mannered children and a compliant wife. (Sounds like a heck of a deal to me) The problem is, now that they are retired, there is nothing for them to do but sit around the house and complain that the wife isn't doing what she should. Their buddies are all still working, and they find themselves with nothing to do because all the tee times are taken, I guess. The women have made their own way for forty years: they have groups of friends, they have regular schedules--in short, they have a life, and now the husbands are underfoot and being obnoxious and demanding about it. So many of these women began suffering real, physical malfunctions such as ulcers, rashes around their eyes, polyps in their throats and so on that doctors gave this malady the name R.H.S. and began to treat it (though mostly treatment involved time spent away from the lord of the manor! Imagine a prescription that read: "go to movies with your friends 3x/wk" or "buy those cute slingback things that you've wanted for so long") Divorce rates are skyrocketing among this age demographic because the women can't stand the men they've been "married" to all these years. One woman even noted that she changed the place she sat at the table so she could look outside instead of at her newly-retired husband!
Of course, this would seem to indicate that Japanes women do not hold jobs outside the home, and I have no specific information about that. The article noted that 85% of all married men looked forward to retirement while only 40% of their wives felt the same.
Let's see...could I sit around reading the Post, watching TV and eating food all day (prepared by my wife before she left for work) and expect her to come home, cook dinner quickly and to my liking, wath more sports on TV and expect amour later? Hmmm. Probably not. Those Japanese guys have it made, but things may be changing there, too.
Now there are support groups which teach Japanese men how to cook, clean, shop for groceries and do all the things it takes for them to survive...the simps! Even I can take a frozen pizza out of the oven and boil it until it's time to eat.
Sheesh! Whatever happened to that spirit of "can-do" that they always brag about in Japan?
There was a pretty good movie which showed the husband/wife relationship called Shall We Dance? (the orininal Masayuki Sao version in '96, not the weaker Richard Gere one in '04) Definitely worth a look into Japanese culture, as is Mr. Baseball if you like sports movies.
Oh yeah, "sodaigomi" means "bulky trash" in Japanese! That's how women refer to their retired husbands. Ouch!
Peace out to all the old guys taking care of themselves!