YouTuber Hikaru’s popularity plummets after declaring open marriage

Hikaru is one of Japan’s most popular YouTubers but the 34-year-old has hit a blip in his career after publicly declaring that he was in an open marriage in a video posted on September 14.

Within 24 hours of posting the video, his channel had bled thousands of followers, dropping to below 5 million. In a single day, he lost around 120,000 subscribers. Comments on the video total over 56,000 at the time of writing and views over 4 million.

In the video, Hikaru appears with his 30-year-old wife, Shingeki no Noa (Minori Maeda), a former hostess turned businesswoman in Osaka.

She once made ¥200 million in five years when working as a hostess in the famed Osaka nightlife district of Kitashinchi. She then established herself as a minor celebrity and media personality.

The couple declared that their marriage was open. “It refers to a form of marriage in which both parties acknowledge sexual relations and romantic relationships with people of the opposite sex other than their spouse,” they explained.

Hikaru said, “I don’t want to divorce. But I want to have affairs.”

Noa said, “I wouldn’t like it if I was the only one who was doing things properly and Hikaru was the only one having all the fun. I’d like to have fun too. If we’re both doing the same thing, if we’re on the same level, then I think it’s fine.”

Hikaru and Noa announced their marriage on May 31 this year. In another example of the self-promotional strategy of YouTubers, they claimed it was an instant marriage and had been dating for “zero days.”

Hikaru, who looks more like a male music idol than a YouTuber (whatever a YouTuber looks like) and just recently moved into a swanky new office, has entered damage control. The next morning, on September 15, he uploaded a new video lasting 35 minutes. “I have absolutely no regrets about uploading that last video. I understand that viewers are angry,” he said. “I think that most people are hiding and doing despicable things, and are just running away. Even though we all know that, everyone is just supporting a false image, doing dishonorable things without looking at reality.”

In Japan, YouTube is a dominant social media platform and YouTubers enjoy huge followings like music idols, but they tend to do best if they maintain a squeaky-clean persona.

In Japan, a majority of marriages are reportedly sexless and a significant number of husbands (and a growing number of wives) admit to having extramarital affairs. As such, while declaring an open marriage might seem shocking and a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it, perhaps it’s just more honest about the reality of monogamy.

On the other hand, one of the major factors that kill the romance and sex in a marriage is having children (in general and especially in Japan, where the futon culture means the kids often sleep in the same room as their mother or both parents). Noa and Hikaru do not have children and have been married for mere months, so they hardly have that excuse for wanting to play the field.