"Men Suffer During Holidays Too"...Divorce Rates Rise After Lunar New Year

First-married women and divorced men report the highest stress
Divorces tend to increase in January?March, including major holidays

A survey of people currently in remarriages found clear gender differences in the sources of holiday stress. Men cited “being on edge around my wife” during their previous (first) marriage as the biggest burden, while women pointed to “hostile looks and attitudes from their in-laws.”

Only-You, a matchmaking company specializing in remarriage, announced on the 15th the results of a survey it conducted jointly with the matchmaking firm Bienare. The survey was carried out from the 9th to the 14th on 516 married people currently in remarriages nationwide (258 men and 258 women).

In response to the question, “What was the hardest part when major holidays such as Lunar New Year came around during your previous marriage?”, 26.4% of men answered “being on edge around my wife,” the highest share. This was followed by “coordinating schedules with my wife” (24.3%) and “financial burden” (21.3%). In contrast, among women, “hostile looks and attitudes from my husband’s family” ranked first at 28.3%, followed by “preparing food for ancestral rites” (25.2%) and “coordinating schedules with my husband” (20.9%).

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Differences also emerged in responses to the question about at which marital stage holiday stress was the greatest. Among men, “after divorce and before remarriage” (31.0%) ranked first, while among women, “first marriage” (35.3%) came out on top. For women, this was followed by remarriage (27.1%), being single (19.8%), and after divorce and before remarriage (17.8%). For men, the order after that was first marriage (28.7%), remarriage (26.0%), and being single (14.3%).

A representative from Only-You explained, “During holidays, family-centered culture is strongly emphasized, so divorced men who are living alone can feel a deep sense of emptiness due to feelings of loss from having left the family and difficulties in maintaining contact with their children.” The representative added, “For women, the physical burden of preparing food for ancestral rites is heavy, but in many cases the greater pain comes from the emotional distress caused by the cold attitudes of their in-laws.”

A Bienare representative also commented, “For men, it is not easy to tiptoe around their wives and try to keep the peace when their wives are unwillingly preparing for ancestral rites at the husband’s family home.”

Meanwhile, there is also a tendency for divorces to increase after major holidays. According to the National Data Office’s “2024 Marriage and Divorce Statistics,” the total number of divorces last year was in the low 90,000 range, and the share in January to March, which includes the Lunar New Year holidays, was relatively higher than in other months.