The long-running variety show "Welcome, Newlyweds!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi, Sundays at 12:55 PM), hosted by Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue, will feature a couple who are both single parents and continue to live separately from each other on May 3rd.
The newlyweds in this story are a 54-year-old husband living in Kama City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and a 43-year-old wife living in Kitakyushu City. Both are single parents who have raised children together, and they have been living separately since remarrying.
My husband moved to Kama City in Fukuoka Prefecture, a city with a population of about 30,000, six years ago. He fell in love with the 40-year-old house. Behind it is the site of a disused railway line, and if you push through the overgrown grass, you can find the tracks of the former Japanese National Railways Kamiyamada Line, which was abandoned in 1988.
The property includes a main house and an annex, and there's a sign that reads "Secret Base," like a train station sign. Inside, a mountain of junk unfolds. The walls are lined with model guns collected by the husband. The wife's son, now in sixth grade, exclaims, "They're so cool!" with sparkling eyes, and he also enjoys playing survival games with his father.
Her husband was once a single father raising three children, struggling for about 20 years. During that time, when they were struggling financially, he questioned why child support allowances were only available to single-mother families and not to single-father families. He then started an NPO with other single fathers in the same situation. Eventually, he helped create a system where the allowances were extended to single-father families as well. What his wife later learned was that he was also a "man who changed the law."
Meanwhile, after the divorce, his wife returned to her parents' home and spent her days busy with childcare, work, and caring for her grandfather. One day, exhausted, she opened Instagram for the first time in a while, intending to take a break, and searched for "#Fukuoka Prefecture," "#childcare," and "#single." That's when she came across her husband's post. Moved by the sparkling photos, she sent him a direct message saying, "I'm exhausted as a single mother. I loved the photos in your post. I'd love to hear your story if you're interested."
The husband, upon receiving the message, was suspicious, thinking, "A message from such a cute girl? Isn't this just a scam?" But after exchanging messages for a while, he decided to meet her. For his wife, it felt like meeting a "mentor" in life, as they were both single. However, upon their first meeting, she naturally began to smile again.
Eventually, his wife asked, "Have you forgiven your ex-wife?" The husband replied lightly, "I don't feel anything about her," and "The fact that we were able to raise three children is all that matters." When his wife asked how he could reach that state of mind, the husband's unexpected reply was, "I want to hug you!" This completely unexpected remark left both MCs speechless. The husband explained, "She was so earnest in asking for advice, and since we've been through the same thing, I felt sorry for her."
Furthermore, the husband, carried away by the momentum, confessed, "Would you like to be my girlfriend?" Despite the rapid developments on their first meeting, the wife accepted his offer that day. The two got married in November 2025. However, considering their son's school schedule, they chose a long-distance marriage, visiting each other's homes on weekends. The husband understands the worries of raising a boy without her having to say anything. Recently, the husband even taught their son to ride a bicycle.
The program features a surprise video that the son prepared for his father. On his father's birthday, the son sang "Happy Birthday dear [father's name]... no, Daddy" in front of a cake. The husband was deeply moved, calling it "the biggest birthday present" ever, the moment he was called "Daddy" for the first time. The studio was filled with a warm atmosphere as it showed the three of them, each carrying their own past, becoming a family.
