Caring for husbands, battling cancer: aging Filipino women in Japan plan for final years
NAGOYA -- As Filipino women who came to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s as pioneers among foreign workers grow older, what kind of life do they want in t
In Nagoya, Julieta Suda, now 58, reminisces about her life as a Filipino woman who migrated to Japan in the 1980s. She recalls arriving in Japan in 1987 at the age of 18 and being paired with a man 25 years her senior for an arranged marriage. Suda's husband ran a coffee shop in Nagoya, where he struggled to raise their two children after his wife passed away.
The couple met at Narita Airport and married shortly after arriving in Japan, during the country's economic bubble. Suda worked at her husband's coffee shop and later had two more children. She struggled to adapt to Japanese society, feeling she couldn't act as a mother or older sister due to language barriers. After her marriage ended, Suda remarried her ex-husband, who now relies on her care as she ages.
Suda intends to return to the Philippines to spend her final years with family after her husband's death. She has taken steps to receive her Japanese pension and arrange her burial in the Philippines, rather than her husband's family grave.
Written by urgent.news from The Mainichi's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
