The Rise and Fall of Japan’s God of Marriage

 

 

Ryuta Watanabe, a 36-year-old resident of Hokkaido, Japan, has gained international notoriety for his pursuit of a lifestyle he calls "Self-Proclaimed Polygamy." Driven by the historical ambition to surpass the legacy of the 18th-century shogun Tokugawa Ienari—who allegedly fathered 53 children—Watanabe has set a personal goal of fathering 54 children to become known as the “God of Marriage.” Despite Japanese law not recognizing polygamy, Watanabe has spent years building a complex structure of common-law partnerships, at one point sharing a home with three of his four wives and several of his ten (now eleven) children.

 

 

For a significant period, Watanabe’s household operated under a reversal of traditional gender roles. Unemployed for over a decade, Watanabe served as a stay-at-home father, managing cooking, cleaning, and childcare, while his partners worked to cover substantial monthly expenses exceeding 900,000 yen. He managed his relationships through a strict rotation of sleeping arrangements and maintained his search for new partners via dating apps and social media, eventually aiming for a total of seven wives. This unconventional setup was chronicled on his YouTube channel, "Polygamy Channel," which briefly provided a lucrative income of 1 million yen per month due to the public’s fascination with his story.

However, the stability of this arrangement proved fragile. In late 2025, Watanabe announced that his polygamous lifestyle had "collapsed." The dissolution was sparked by a combination of financial instability and a fundamental shift in his wives' perspectives. While Watanabe wished to further expand the family to pursue global fame, his first and third wives—exhausted by the physical and emotional demands of childcare—rejected his ambitions, reportedly labeling the lifestyle as "gross." These wives eventually took their children and returned to their parental homes, leaving Watanabe with total assets of only 110,000 yen.

Currently, Watanabe is living out of his car with his second wife, the only partner who remained by his side. Despite this "rock bottom" status and a wave of public backlash characterizing his behavior as irresponsible, Watanabe remains undeterred in his mission. He recently announced a "new wife audition" to rebuild his family, claiming to have already received several applications. While his dream of making a mark on history remains intact, his current situation highlights the severe practical and emotional challenges of sustaining a polygamous structure within a modern society.