Ai Fukuhara, who “reached a settlement with her ex-husband,” her ex-company boyfriend, a “300 million yen interest-free” patron, and other “men” who support her.

Ai Fukuhara, the former Japanese national team and Olympic medalist in table tennis who has been sued by her ex-husband Chiang Hung-Chieh for handing over their eldest son, made her first public appearance in many years at a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on March 15 to announce that she and Jiang have settled their dispute over custody.

Last summer, the Tokyo Family Court issued a decision ordering Fukuhara to hand over his eldest son to Jiang, but he refused to comply and stayed in China. Before that, FRIDAY reported that she and a man in his 30s were enjoying a vacation in Singapore.

It was thought that Fukuhara’s image would inevitably be tarnished by the impression that he was a wanted criminal who was traveling from place to place overseas to avoid arrest, but this press conference seems to have dispelled such fears.

What attracted more attention than the content of the press conference was the transformation of her appearance. It was not just a negative story, but her matured atmosphere must have made many people “thrilled”. In Japan, it was a big topic of conversation.

In China, her “home town,” she was not seen on social networking sites mentioning her appearance, but there were many posts about her, and it seems that her popularity in China is as high as ever.

On the day of the press conference, she also reported her reconciliation on Weibo, a social networking service that can be called China’s version of “X,” and received many messages of support. According to a writer living in China,

There were reports that her popularity in China has waned, but I don’t think that’s true. Fukuhara-san is Japanese, but to Chinese people, he is a “Chinese person.

I wonder if this is also called ‘favoritism toward the magistrate. She was beaten up in Taiwan by her ex-husband, Chiang Hung-Chieh, for a series of fights, so more and more people in China are supporting her as a counterbalance to Taiwan.

The shadows of several “men” have been constantly flickering in Fukuhara’s periphery.

According to a report in Shukan Bunshun, after this press conference, Fukuhara went to a wealthy Chinese man who is said to be her sponsor.