In Japan it is estimated that 60% of older women have a common problem - their husbands. Having spent years "married to their jobs", retired men are having an extraordinary effect on the health of their partners.
在日本，據估計有百分之六十較年長的婦女有個共同的問題，那就是她們的老公，在花了好幾年「和工作結婚」後，退休男子對他們老伴的健康影響深遠。
Takako Terakawa shares her cramped, two-room flat in Osaka with a cat the size of a small child, 400 teddy bears and her husband.
寺川貴子和一隻幾乎和小娃娃一樣大的貓、四百個玩具熊和她老公，擠在大阪一間狹窄的兩房公寓裡。
The bears are neatly stored, and filed according to colour and size, in a cabinet in her bedroom. She brings them out to inspect and groom them each day. As she does so, her whole body relaxes. This seems to be what she lives for. The bears are a replacement for her husband.
這些玩具熊井然有序的珍藏，並根據不同顏色和大小在她臥室衣櫃裡排好。她每天把他們拿出來檢視梳理。當她在做這件事時，全身都很放鬆。她似乎就是為此而活。這些玩具熊取代了她老公的地位。
Mrs Terakawa suffers from Retired Husband Syndrome (RHS), an illness born of a particular set of social conditions.
貴子太太已經得了「退休丈夫症候群」，這種病好發於某些特定的社會情況。
Women brought up during the 50s and 60s - the baby-boomer generation - are sometimes seen as a commodity by their husbands, someone to do the housework and look after the children.
在五○和六○年代長大的婦女，也就是所謂嬰兒潮世代，有時被她們的老公物化為商品，只是做家事和照顧孩子的老媽子。
Their husbands may be "salarymen" or white collar workers, who leave home in the early hours, and return merely to sleep.
她們的老公也許是「薪水階級」或白領勞工，他們七早八早就出門，回家只是要休息。
These couples can gradually drift apart, carving out separate lives for themselves.
這些夫婦可能逐漸分道揚鑣，各過各的日子。
Then, when the husband approaches 60 - the national retirement age in Japan - the wife gradually realises she is going to be thrust into the permanent company of a man who has grown to be a stranger.
等老公年近六十，也就是日本人的退休年紀，老婆漸漸明瞭，她將被推去和一個幾乎完全陌生的男子永遠共處一室。
It is at this point that wives in Japan have started becoming ill, showing signs of both depression and physical illness.
日本的太太多半在這時開始生病，所顯示的病症包括憂鬱症和身體上的疾病。
"When I thought about my husband being at home, I developed rashes on my body and had stomach ache," admits Mrs Terakawa. "On occasions I would throw up after I had eaten. Sometimes just being in the same room with him made me physically sick. "
貴子太太承認：「我一想起老公在家，就全身長疹子和胃痛，有時我吃了東西還會反胃。有時光是和他同處一室就使我全身不適。」
The syndrome was discovered by Dr Nobuo Kurokawa who, over the past 10 years, has been treating a steady flow of Japanese women of a certain age with the same symptoms, including depression, skin rashes, ulcers, asthma and high blood pressure.
這種症候群是由黑川伸夫醫師發現，過去十年來，他不斷治療某個年齡層的日本婦女，她們都有同樣的症狀，包括憂鬱症，皮膚起疹子，潰瘍、氣喘和高血壓。
Dr Kurokawa, who has a surgery in Osaka, believes that 60% of older women are affected by RHS and says that if it is ignored, the symptoms will just get worse.
黑川醫師在大阪有間手術室，他相信百分之六十較年長的婦女都被老公退休症候群影響，他並說，如果不加理會，這種症狀會繼續惡化。
"If the husband doesn't try to understand, the illness becomes incurable," he says.
他說：「如果老公不設法諒解，這種病將藥石罔效。」
《詞解》
syndrome 症候群
teddy bears 玩具熊
baby-boomer generation 嬰兒潮世代
white collar workers 白領階級
rashes 疹子
incurable 藥石罔效