Tomio Umezawa:His wife, 7 years younger than him, looks back on their 35 years of marriage: "There have been many hardships" and reveals the secret to a happy marriage on "Tetsuko's Room"

Actor Tomio Umezawa (74), who will be celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary this year, and his wife Akiko Ikeda, who is seven years younger than him, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on February 5th. They talked about the secret to a happy marriage.

When Tetsuko introduced her by saying, "This year they will have been married for 35 years, but your wife has had many hardships," Akiko admitted, "There have been many." She cheerfully continued, "Recently, when old footage of (Umezawa) was shown on TV, he would say, 'I was really popular back then, but...' That's how it was!"

Even so, she recalled, "Whenever I got a little angry, the thought (divorce) would come to mind, but I never really thought about it seriously." Umezawa then interjected, "I just want to say this!" and continued, "I never really brought that problem home. Home is home! Play is play!" Akiko laughed next to her and said, "Let's just leave it at that."

"We never really had any arguments at home. We would apologize honestly when it happened, but there were a lot of incidents," Umezawa said. In response, Akiko said, "Even if Umezawa did something bad, after a while it became a laughing matter. That's unfair."

With their two daughters now independent, the Umezawas are living alone for the first time since they got married. "We haven't had any of that recently," they said, living a life free of "scary moments." Akiko, who works as the principal of a school that teaches botanical therapy and hand care, said, "I try to give my husband massages so he can stay as calm as possible. Massaging his body also calms him down, so I often give him hand massages."

Umezawa emphasized that the secret to a happy marriage is "touching each other." "We always hug when we go out. We've always done that," he said.