Man Who Got a Woman Pregnant… Ordered to Pay Damages for “Faking Single Status”; Court Ruling Reveals “Outrageous Lie” Behind “System Glitch” Claim

“Requests for Money” Began Just Six Days Into the Relationship

“Faking single status” refers to the practice of continuing a romantic relationship with someone while pretending to be single, despite actually being married. This despicable act, which fundamentally destroys the lives of those involved, is now attracting significant attention as a social issue.

On June 23, the Tokyo District Court handed down a verdict in a “single-pretender” case, ordering a man in his 30s to pay approximately 4.6 million yen in damages.

According to reports by Nippon TV (Nippon TV NEWS) and the Mainichi Shimbun, among others, the victim, a woman in her 30s, had been in a relationship with this man for about two years. The couple had exchanged promises of marriage and had even undergone fertility treatment. As a result, the woman became pregnant, a long-awaited event.However, as the marriage plans never materialized, the woman confronted the man and discovered that he already had a wife and children. Cornered, the man knelt on the floor at her front door and apologized. The woman then hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against him.

FRIDAY Digital has now obtained an exclusive copy of the court ruling. A review of the document reveals a detailed account of the man’s numerous “absurd lies.”

In August 2022, the plaintiff, Ms. A, met the defendant through an acquaintance. When they began dating, Ms. A made it clear that she “absolutely would not tolerate an affair,” but the man calmly lied, claiming, “I’m divorced and single.”

Then, just six days into their relationship, the man began asking her for money under the following pretext:

“He began asking the plaintiff to lend him cash, claiming that he had lost his wallet and, due to his busy work schedule, was unable to have his bank card reissued” (from the judgment; hereinafter, text in 〈 〉 is from the judgment).

Ms. A believed him and, by the end of that year, had lent him a total of approximately 400,000 yen in multiple installments.Furthermore, in December of that same year, the two began looking for an apartment to live together and signed a provisional lease agreement; however, the man claimed that he was “unable to pay the 300,000 yen deposit because he had lost his wallet,” and had Ms. A cover the payment.Around the same time, he borrowed another 100,000 yen, claiming he “could not pay condolence money to a business associate.” After only a few months of dating, Ms. A had effectively been made to give the man a total of about 800,000 yen.

“Overseas Transfer,” “Six Months for the Ring”—Using Every Trick in the Book to Delay Marriage

While constantly asking her for money, the man skillfully kept A-ko focused on the idea of marriage.He declared he would propose on their one-year anniversary and even had dinner with A-ko’s parents to inform them that they were “seriously dating.” He even went so far as to sign and stamp the marriage registration form himself, but he left the address section incomplete, claiming, “I’ll fill in the address once we start living together,” and never made any attempt to submit it to the local government office.

Furthermore, the court ruling reveals the numerous ad-hoc lies the man used to keep delaying the marriage registration.

He ordered a wedding ring but made the excuse that “it would take about six months for delivery.” Furthermore, although he had previously mentioned at work that he was being transferred to the United States, he suddenly claimed , “There’s a possibility the transfer destination will be Canada instead of the United States,” “I failed the background check, so the job change isn’t going well,”“the project at my new job has stalled,” and “the project manager and the top executive in Japan were fired” —a string of reasons that were simply impossible to believe.

When Ako, having lost her patience, demanded an explanation regarding the repayment of the loan and their marriage, the man talked her into accepting his argument that “it would be proper to register our marriage only after the job change is settled.”She then agreed to undergo physically taxing fertility treatments, such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and submitted a declaration to the clinic with the box labeled “We are in a common-law marriage” checked. Then, in July 2024, Ako finally became pregnant.

However, even after she found out she was pregnant, the marriage talks made no progress whatsoever. As Ako’s distrust grew, in September ’24, she demanded that the man at least settle the money she had lent him so far, and he promised to repay it by a set deadline.

However, even after the deadline passed, no payment was received. When Ms. A pressed him for an explanation, the man offered the following excuses:

“Since the transfer amount was large, I had a junior colleague present (omitted) when I made the transfer.” “The payment wasn’t processed due to a bank system failure.”

Suspicious of this, Ms. A contacted the “junior colleague” the man had mentioned directly, and the truth came to light. The junior colleague revealed the following to Ms. A:

“A-ko became emotionally unstable after becoming pregnant and is demanding 4 million yen in compensation from the defendant. She had already transferred 3 million yen, but since she was 1 million yen short, she asked me to lend her the money.”

It turned out that the man had told the junior colleague a massive lie—claiming that Ms. A was demanding an unreasonable amount of compensation—in order to elicit sympathy and borrow 1 million yen from him as well. The 1 million yen he borrowed was subsequently transferred via online banking to Ms. A as a “repayment.”

In other words, to cover up his own selfish lies, the man deceived even his junior colleague into lending him 1 million yen, which he then transferred to Ms. A. He was engaged in a vicious cycle of debt manipulation.

The Truth About His “Married” Status Finally Comes to Light, and His Selfish Arguments in Court

Having reached her limit with his repeated suspicious behavior and lies, Ms. A confronted the man in October ’24, with an acquaintance present.According to reports, when the acquaintance cut to the chase by saying, “I know all about your lies so far,” the man finally gave in. He confessed that he was still married with a wife and children and had not divorced; in the end, he reportedly prostrated himself in the entryway.

The lease for the apartment they were supposed to live in together and the story about his job change—it was all a lie. Believing they would marry, she underwent fertility treatment and finally conceived a new life. However, the man who was to be the father had been a married man with a wife and children who, from the very beginning of their relationship, constantly asked her for money and lied as naturally as breathing.Despite having made it clear that she “would not date a married man,” Ms. A became pregnant after being deceived into believing he was single, only to be told immediately afterward that he was married. This series of wrongful acts left her in a state of depression.

The case then moved to court. In response to Ms. A’s claims of violation of her right to chastity and breach of engagement, the defendant presented the following counterarguments:

“There was no fact that he proposed with the intention of living together as a married couple.” “Because A-ko was mentally unstable, I could not bring myself to break up with her.”

Throughout the proceedings, they maintained selfish arguments that sought to shift the blame onto the victim.

There was no way the court would accept such self-centered arguments.

In its ruling, the court noted that the two had been undergoing fertility treatments and other procedures with the intention of marriage from the very beginning of their relationship, and therefore

〈it is recognized that a legal engagement worthy of legal protection was established between the plaintiff, A-ko, and the defendant〉

. Regarding the fact that the man was married,

“In cases where one party was unaware at the time of the engagement that the other party had a spouse, it is reasonable to interpret that an engagement with a married person is also worthy of legal protection,”

, indicating that an engagement entered into without knowledge of the other party’s marital status is legally protected. Furthermore, regarding the man’s arguments, the court stated that

“consisted entirely of selfish assertions that showed no consideration for Plaintiff Ako’s feelings, and it is clear that the defendant broke off the engagement with Plaintiff Ako without any justifiable reason,”

and ordered him to pay a total of approximately 4.66 million yen, including 4 million yen in compensation for emotional distress.

“I lost my wallet,” “It was a system glitch”—the man’s behavior, built on a web of childish lies, deeply wounded one woman’s life and heart. However, under current law, it is not possible to impose direct criminal penalties for such “pretending to be single.” It is an extremely frustrating case.

It is reported that the woman is currently raising her daughter as a single mother.