TV personality and actress Hinano Yoshikawa, 31, is four months pregnant and planning to marry her long-term boyfriend next year. Yoshikawa revealed the happy news in a fax sent to media this week.
"We were planning to get married next year, but as fate would have it, we became pregnant earlier than expected. We're delighted that destiny has brought us this gift and we plan to cherish it," she wrote in the fax.
The couple say they have not yet decided when to register their marriage, or when they will have their wedding reception.
The marriage will be Yoshikawa's second. In February of 1999 at the age of 19, Yoshikawa married musician Yoshikazu Hine, who goes under the name IZAM. In September of the same year, the pair were divorced.
Yoshikawa is believed to have met her current boyfriend, the 36-year-old manager of a music and fashion company, in 2006. She added, "I'm happy and excited for all of the unknown and unexpected things I feel the future is going to bring."
© Japan Today
29 Comments
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soldave
Shotgun!
nath
If you don't have the personal style to wear a beret properly, please don't.
Maria
Her use of the words "fate" and "destiny" don't jibe with
Why lie about it by suggsting that any thought or planning actually went into their getting pregnant at all?
CptCrunch
Maria, do you actually believe fate is a real force, or do you think fate comes with thought or planning? Might it just be that you want to snipe at her in some way, for not following your prescribed manner of doing things?
I look at this and all is just dandy. They are expecting a baby and they are taking responsibility. What more could one ask without being a self-righteous hyper-reactive pain in the butt?
nath
Getting pregnant is easy, but staying married after the baby there is work.
ExportExpert
So her boyfriend became pregnant too or is she the only one who is pregnant?
Ridiculous saying "we are pregnant" men cant get pregnant and its only the girl who is carrying the child.
Always disliked that statement.
Pukey2
Just when we have news that Koyuki and Matsuyama are expecting a baby about 9 months after their wedding, here we have the usual 'accidently try for a baby and then hurry and get married' Japanese couple. Seriously, if you're going to get married, can't you wait till after the wedding. If you don't plan on having kids before hand, then use a condom. It's never a good start when you have to 'force' yourself into a marriage. Sorry, but I agree with Maria. Is it because the child will be fatherless in the eyes of the law? Some stupid law or some stupid people?
CptCrunch
Pukey2, to hell with the law and to hell with society's arbitrary judgements too. If a man and woman do right by eachother and do right by the child they create, that is enough and all that really matters. People who take pleasure in judging others on stupid little details be damned.
You ask if they can wait to get married? The answer is no, and why should they?
As to forcing a marriage, you are correct, its not a good idea. But who says this is forced? Some couples have an agreement to get married if a pregnancy occurs. Nothing wrong with that. They have that and they don't need condoms. If the baby seals the deal for them, great. Its sure better than some ceremony fantasy and filing of paperwork for the government. Its not like they cannot undo a marriage anyway, so what's the difference but in the heads of outsiders, ie, people who simply don't count?
2020hindsights
Well said CptCrunch! I know a lot of people who live together happily and can't see the point of being married. However, if a baby comes along - then for the sake and rights of the baby they marry.
I went to karaoke with Hinano once. At that time she was with ex DA Pump member Shinobu. I wonder what happened to him...
cleo
Not so long ago - the boomers' parents' generation - the accepted thing in Japan was not to register a marriage officially until after the wife had proved herself fertile. If you look at koseki from before to just after the war, you'll see that in many cases the marriage is officially registered not long before or even after the birth of the eldest child. This wasn't a case of hot-for-each-other couples not being able to wait, since most marriages were arranged and the lucky couple might not even meet until their wedding day. So the modern 'shotgun wedding' has a different connotation here; instead of indicating a marriage forced on a couple by irate soon-to-be-grandparents, it indicates relief that the bride no longer faces the threat of being sent back to her parents after being unable to produce an heir.
Congratulations to Ms Yoshikawa. Eat well, get plenty of rest, do your exercises.
2020hindsights
Getting married is easy, but staying married after the baby there is work.
2020hindsights
Pukey2
I don't understand. I thought they happen at the same time. I mean people get married during a wedding.
cleo
Not in Japan they don't. The 'wedding' has no legal significance; getting legally married means having your konintodoke signed, sealed and accepted at the local ward/city/town hall.
It used to be that couples would have their wedding and go off intending to deal with the konintodoke after they got back from honeymoon; hence the famed 'Narita divorce' involved little or no paperwork. There were also a few sad incidences of one or other partner dying on honeymoon, and the remaining partner being left with no legal recourse to insurance etc - and also the prospect of an 'illegitimate' honeymoon baby. Nowadays couples tend to register the marriage days, weeks or even months before the wedding, and the marriage certificate is displayed for guests to see at the reception.
Anna Louise
I often wonder what happened during her and Izam's honeymoon! She was so excited to marry him but came back with her face half covered and looking very upset and the marriage was zapped from then on!
noirgaijin
Japan's Gold-digger poster child is tying the knot again, and she used a fax machine to get the word out! Who uses a fax machine anymore?
TrouserEnthusiast
They met in 2006 and probably started dating then right?
It's not really a shotgun wedding or anything.
If it's worked for five years then hopefully after marriage and a baby they will still stay together!
Elbuda Mexicano
Hinano Yoshikawa has a real pretty face, now if she could just match that pretty face with a pretty sensible brain, she may get some where, but she already screwed up when she was 19, now she gets pregnant from some dude who may or may NOT even LEGALLY marry her, this IS A BIG DEAL, Japan aint no FRANCE etc...here, socially and legally it is a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE, my guess, this dude will just leave her, say something like, Hey there are plenty of single mothers out there who can work etc..and we will read about this in the near future not only on JT but on NHK etc...
BurakuminDes
Nice teeth.
ritalynn
Isn't it possible that they were already engaged to get married and in the process of planing the wedding she got pregnant? That does happen.
And who's to say they wasn't using protection? Stuff happens. No form of protection, other than abstinence is 100% effective.
cwhite
If they have been living together for a few years already then they will probably do fine. If not they have 6 months to sort it out before their life gets turned upside down. If the kid becomes the bond between the parents then lets hope it lasts a long time and gets stronger by the day. In fact have 5 or 6 more kids if you can afford it.
These days marriage means very little other than a piece of paper and it's up to you to dictate how it goes. Nobody to blame except yourself and perhaps Tepco.
miyazawa3
She miss the pill , to get marry him..? One day the Child going to be a Victim of Marriage. Lack of respect , Sarcastically...we say
Dekichata Kekkon desu.
Pukey2
2020:
Obviously, eating, listening to music and reading JT while typing at the same time was never one of my strong points. What I meant to say was, if you're going to plan for a baby, can't you wait till after the wedding? Especially seeing that she says they were going to get hitched next year.
I don't know this bimbo personally, but if they stay together, then good for them. But I'd be surprised if they last more than two or three years. Typical examples of have sex / get pregnant / announce wedding / have baby / get divorced when just after baby learns to walk:
Amuro Namie
Leah Dizon
Hirosue Ryoko
ad nauseum
Crunch:
Absolutely. People should be able to do want they want (ie have a baby, providing they can provide a loving home) and that includes single people and gays. But why are people here following the same ridiculous pattern? Personally I don't think marriage is that important anymore and it's certainly lost its shine when people can marry and divorce willy-nilly. Are single Japanese women not allowed to write the father's name down on the birth certificate if she is single?
malfupete
who?
Serrano
malfupete - Where have you been? Ha ha!
oberst
nice smile, nice denture
gaijinfo
Moral of the story? Always wear a condom.
CptCrunch
Well if they weren't, they weren't using it properly. No, I am not being a smart-ass. You basically have to mess it up to cause a pregnancy while using protection. Condoms don't just break mysteriously. The likelyhood of one having such a flaw not caused by the user has got to be in the one in a million category. If it was pills, somebody messed up the schedule, etc.
But I would still say odds are they were not even trying to use protection. That's okay though. They were prepared for the consequences it seems and they are accepting them.
Tasendia
Congratulations and good luck to them.
Off topic though, how do you change your avatar picture? (I cannot see how to change it)
tokyotom
she is christmas cake sometime in march