It’s true. Short-term rental home startup Kasoku is looking to cash in on the number of husbands and wives tired of being stuck at home with their spouses by providing a ‘home away from home’.
Its 500 fully furnished units – usually rented out to travellers – are now providing a brief respite for frustrated spouses to work or spend time alone, at a rate of 4,400 yen (AUD$63) a day or a monthly fee of 90,000 yen (AUD$1,287) – which seems like good value to us (depending of course, on the price you put on your relationship).
“The goal is to avoid divorce,” its spokesperson Kosuke Amano told The Japan Times. “We hope couples first distance themselves and think about (their marriage). For our part, we will provide rooms that they can live in and an environment for teleworking.”
The idea resulted from the company president’s own experience of breaking up with his live-in girlfriend – and has also allowed Kasoku to fill empty units as the number of tourists dropped off.
Helpfully (or unhelpfully) too, the company is also offering free 30-minute divorce consultations with legal services.
Sounds like an extreme move – but research has shown the divorce rate in China spiked after the lockdowns there.
So, if you love someone, let them go – before you end up in front of the divorce court.
