Beloved Wife Day (Japan)
Next: January 31, 2027
Home by eight. Say thank you.
The story
Where it comes from
Beloved Wife Day, Aisaika no Hi, was created by the Japan Aisaika Organization, a light-hearted movement started in 2004 by husbands who decided that cherishing your wife might make the world a little more peaceful. The date is a pun: the English letter 'I' is read ai, and 31 can be read sai, together making aisai, 'beloved wife'. The group's headquarters is in Tsumagoi, a village in Gunma Prefecture whose name can be read as 'longing for one's wife'.
How it's celebrated
The organisation's plan is simple: at 8 pm on 31 January, husbands all over Japan sit down at the dinner table and say words of thanks and appreciation to their wives. It calls this a 'grand social experiment' that might make Japan a little more peaceful. Elsewhere, it is an easy day to send a card that just says thank you.
Did you know
- The organisation's honorary president is the legendary prince Yamato Takeru, who in the Nihon Shoki chronicle cried out for his lost wife, Ototachibana-hime.
- Tsumagoi is better known across Japan for its cabbages.
- The organisation also chooses a 'Mr Aisaika' of the year, a public figure whose devotion to his wife sets an example.
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