▲ A park in Tokyo, Japan
Consultations regarding so-called "kazoku jimai" (family severance)—where individuals completely cut ties with parents or relatives or outsource family-managed roles such as caregiving to external entities—are surging in Japan.
According to Yomiuri TV on November 3, the number of related inquiries received by LMN, a general incorporated association that supports the lives of the elderly, skyrocketed from 55 cases between January and March 2022 to 320 cases between January and March of this year, marking roughly a sixfold surge over four years.
Eighty percent of all consultations concern severing ties with family members.
In the past, cases were predominantly among seniors in their 60s and 70s seeking advice over persistent parental overinterference or caregiving issues. Recently, however, the proportion of younger individuals in their 20s and 30s has surged to account for 40% of the total.
Behind this phenomenon lies pushback from the younger generation, who have suffered from parents prone to verbal abuse, physical abuse, or neglect.
This is the result of a spreading mindset that refuses to tolerate the irresponsible attitude of parents who inflicted deep scars on their children in the past yet expect to pass on the burden of caregiving in their old age without any apology or reflection.
Consequently, an increasing number of people are paying an initial registration fee of 550,000 yen (approx. 4.7 million won) alongside a paid agency service fee of 11,000 yen per session (based on four hours) to entrust parental care, hospitalization, and funeral procedures to companies while completely cutting off contact with their parents.
The frequency of service use averages 1 to 1.5 times per month, reaching up to 10 times a month in some cases.
Endo Hideki, the representative of LMN, explained that the reason people use these agency services despite the hefty costs is the desperate desire to find liberation from daily contact and worry.
He also explained that this is driven by a fear of what parents might do if left unattended, combined with the complex emotional state of not being able to completely abandon parents even when the relationship has broken down.
Amid aging demographics and shifting family values, Yomiuri TV reported that choosing to keep a certain distance or tidy up relationships rather than enduring unconditional sacrifice simply due to blood ties is establishing itself as a new social phenomenon.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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