Learning to say "I love you"

Here's a story I did on Japanese husbands desperate to rekindle their marriages as retirement dawns:

Feb. 1, 2007
By Hiroko Tabuchi, AP

Mitsutoshi Fukatsu has been with his wife for three decades, but their lives have grown apart: as a busy stationmaster, he returned to their home in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, only to eat, bathe and sleep.

Now, with retirement looming, the 56-year-old wants to get to know his wife better. He's helping with chores, calls his wife by her name, Setsuko -- instead of just grunting -- and recently learned a new phrase: "I love you."

Fukatsu was one of a small group of men taking part in the second annual "Beloved Wives Day" on Wednesday in hopes of salvaging their marriages by doing something unusual -- paying attention to their wives.

"For about a year now, I've been helping out with the housework," Fukatsu said. "I can't stay at my company forever. I have to return home. But right now, I don't feel like I have a place there."

Read the rest of the story on The Japan Times homepage.

AP photo by Shizuo Kambayashi