A lovely and comforting article in today’s JT (online anyway) about co-existing with one’s in-laws. Okuma is married to a Japanese, and living under the same roof as her husband’s parents.
Living with your in-laws is not just an issue for foreign wives in Japan. Every month, more than 100,000 copies of the popular “Yome vs. Shutome” [daughter-in-law vs. mother-in-law] are bought by Japanese wives who identify with their manga heroine’s in-law problems.
Japanese women know, in part at least, what they’re getting into when they marry a Japanese man. But for foreign wives, it’s a case of sink or swim once they’ve been thrown in at the marital deep end. You get a rude introduction to Japanese expectations when they clash with your own.
My situation is the opposite, living as I do with my wife’s parents, but many of Okuma’s experiences resonate loud and clear with my own.