It seems like many in the West might be ignorant of how things are in other countries, but just as a reminder, same-sex marriage is not yet legal in Japan in 2021 and marriage, in addition to being a standard status symbol and rite of passage, also brings many financial benefits not afforded to unmarried people. You can say a sham marriage is cheating the system, but until it is corrected, you can argue the system itself is broken in the first place.
A common viewpoint in Japan is "strangers doing the gay, whatever, but please not my own family members" which is not at all easy to dismiss when people around continually emphasize the importance of respecting family.
The younger generation may see things differently and slowly changing things, but another important point is that loveless marriages are common in East Asia. Its purpose to bring forth offspring, no happiness with a partner or anything like that. Many enter marriages understanding this to be the case. While divorce does happen, the fact that marriage is a status symbol and not simply a personal matter means it brings a risk to one's reputation unless there are extraordinary circumstances.
The commenters who say "rotten cheater" are the ones with the privilege of not being under such discrimination, and perhaps this shows that it is easy to take privileges for granted. The other works in this anthology does bring some doubt on these characters, but overall they don't seem as crazy as the other ones.
It is true that this short of a manga doesn't allow the cultural context to be explained very well, but it is important to keep in mind that even as things change rapidly in the modern world, that things still vary wildly between countries.
last edited at Feb 26, 2021 3:50PM