The long-running variety show "Welcome, Newlyweds!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi network, Sundays at 12:55 PM), hosted by Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue, will feature a couple on October 4th who had a "life plan" to have four children.
A 31-year-old husband and his 32-year-old wife came from Itabashi Ward in Tokyo. The husband is an energy-related engineer, and the wife is a full-time housewife. The wife, the fourth daughter of six siblings, had longed for a "lively family" since she was in elementary school and had made a "life plan" to have four children at the ages of 26, 28, 30, and 32.
To make her plans a reality, she felt she had to get married quickly, so from her twenties she made full use of speed dating events, group dates, and dating apps, meeting over 300 men in Osaka. She worked so hard at finding a husband that she felt like she had "turned all of Osaka upside down," but there were many playboys among them, and she gradually began to view men with suspicion.
When she confided in her youngest sister, who lives in Tokyo, about her disastrous dating situation, she received the advice, "There are probably more single men in Tokyo, aren't there?" So, she quit the job she had held for over six years and moved in with her sister and brother-in-law to focus all her energy on finding a husband. She met nearly 100 men in Tokyo, but her soulmate just wouldn't come along.
It was during this time that she met her husband through a dating app. Her husband, whose job involved overseas business trips and assignments, had been thinking about getting married and starting a family before his overseas assignments, and living abroad with his family. He fell in love at first sight with his wife's smile when he saw it on the app. His wife also had a good impression of him, thinking, "He's kind of handsome." Furthermore, his profile listed "graduate of Kyoto University Graduate School," "annual income of over 10 million yen," and "want to get married soon," so she jumped at the chance, thinking, "He's got great qualities!"
In May 2024, the two went on their first date at Yoyogi Park. However, the wife, who had become suspicious after her previous experiences with dating, immediately noticed some "suspicious behavior." Despite the scorching heat, her husband remained dressed in long sleeves and long pants. He stubbornly refused to take them off, and when she asked about his job, he gave a vague answer of "something related to Earth," and when she asked where he lived, he wouldn't even tell her the nearest train station to his home.
However, the husband had a rather endearing reason. He didn't want to lose his wife and had bought a whole new outfit for the date, so he didn't want to mess up his look even though it was hot. He thought "earth-related" sounded bigger in scale than "energy." He was vague about the nearest station because it wasn't a typical "Tokyo-like" place, and he wanted to make a good impression on his wife who had come to Tokyo from Osaka. All of the husband's vanity had backfired.
Nevertheless, his wife thought, "He's got good qualities and good looks, I don't want to let him get away," and continued to thoroughly investigate her husband. When her husband went on a business trip to Indonesia for about a month, she switched to video calls and asked him to "show me the other side of the room" to check for any signs of another woman. She made him send her photos of him eating out and checked on Google Maps to see if the restaurants in the pictures actually existed in Indonesia. Even after he returned and she got his business card, her suspicions were not cleared, and she finally decided to stake out his company. The wife even went so far as to check if he was actually coming out of his workplace, which made MC Takashi Fujii burst out laughing and say, "What kind of female detective is this?!"
After seeing her husband actually leave the company and recalling how he had called her every day while she was away on business, the wife finally felt relieved, thinking, "Maybe he's just an honest person after all." Later, her husband confessed his feelings to her, asking her to be his girlfriend with marriage in mind, and their relationship began.
However, the next hurdle was the wife's family. When the eldest daughter heard that her husband had asked her to move in with her after only meeting him three times, she became worried and asked, "Is this guy really okay?" The family decided to meet once, and after three months of dating, the husband visited his parents' home in Osaka to introduce himself before moving in together. There were 13 people waiting for him, including his family and cousins.
The questioning began with, "He's from Kyoto University, isn't he? He must be really popular," and continued for a full hour, asking questions like, "Are you sure you want him as your sister?", "What do you like about her?", "Are you going to buy a house?", "How much money does he spend on his hobbies?", and "How will you divide the housework?". While her husband was in the bathroom, the wife quickly checked with the restroom to see what happened. The eldest daughter's assessment was, "He seems normal so far." In the end, the family's doubts were cleared, with the conclusion being, "He's just a nice guy."
Seven months into their relationship, the husband proposed, and they officially became husband and wife. The husband says he's "incredibly happy" about their newlywed life, but he hasn't forgotten his "life plan" to have four children with his wife. The wife, now 32, made the studio laugh by saying, "We'll keep working hard and continue to be affectionate with each other."
