Married Man Who Pretended to Be Single Ordered to Pay Damages After Getting Woman Pregnant
Asking for money just six days into the relationship
Pretending to be single despite being legally married—a deception known in Japan as “fake single” (dokushin gisō)—has become an increasingly prominent social issue. The practice can devastate victims’ lives, as they build relationships and make life-changing decisions based on a lie.
On June 23, the Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling in one such case, ordering a man in his 30s to pay approximately ¥4.6 million (about $31,000) in damages.
According to reports by Nippon TV (Nippon TV News) and The Mainichi Newspapers, the female plaintiff, also in her 30s, dated the man for about two years. The couple promised to marry and even underwent fertility treatment together. The woman eventually became pregnant, but when marriage plans never moved forward, she confronted the man—only to discover that he already had a wife and child. Cornered, he reportedly knelt at her front door to apologize. She later hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit.
“FRIDAY Digital” independently obtained the court ruling. It details an astonishing series of lies told by the defendant.
The woman, identified in the ruling as Ms. A, met the man through a mutual acquaintance in August 2022. Before they began dating, she made her position clear:
“I absolutely don’t want to be involved in an affair.”
The man calmly reassured her that he was divorced and single—a claim that was entirely false.
Just six days after they began dating, he started asking her for money.
“Claiming that he had lost his wallet and was too busy with work to have his cash card reissued, he began asking the plaintiff to lend him cash.”
(Court ruling. All quotations below are from the ruling.)
Believing his story, Ms. A lent him money multiple times, totaling about ¥400,000 by the end of that year.
In December 2022, the couple searched for an apartment where they planned to live together and even signed a provisional lease agreement. But once again, the man claimed he couldn’t pay the ¥300,000 deposit because he had lost his wallet, leaving Ms. A to cover the cost.
Around the same time, he also borrowed another ¥100,000, saying he couldn’t afford condolence money for a business associate.
Within just a few months of dating, Ms. A had effectively paid around ¥800,000 on the man’s behalf.
“Overseas Transfer,” “Six Months for the Ring”—Using Every Trick to Delay Marriage
While repeatedly asking A for money, the man was also skillfully making A believe that marriage was on the way. On their one-year dating anniversary, he declared that he would propose. He also had dinner with A’s parents and introduced himself, saying that he was seriously committed to the relationship.
He even signed and stamped a marriage registration form himself. However, when it came to the address section, he made an excuse that he would fill in the address when they started living together, leaving the document incomplete—and he never intended to submit it to the authorities.
The court ruling also reveals the many improvised lies the man used to keep delaying their official marriage registration.
After ordering wedding rings, he claimed:
“It will take about six months until they are delivered.”
Around the same time, he had told people at work that he would be transferred to the United States. But suddenly, he began giving a series of unbelievable excuses, including:
“There is a possibility that my transfer location will be Canada instead of the United States.”
“My background check didn’t pass, and my job change isn’t going well.”
“The project at my new company has fallen through.”
“The person in charge of the project and the top executive in Japan were fired.”
When A grew tired of waiting and demanded an explanation regarding both the repayment of the money she had lent him and their marriage plans, the man tried to persuade her by saying:
“It makes sense to register the marriage after the job change situation has been settled.”
He also agreed to undergo fertility treatments, including physically demanding procedures such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). At the clinic, they submitted documents in which they checked the box stating:
“We are in a de facto marriage relationship.”
Then, in July 2024, A finally became pregnant.
However, even after the pregnancy was confirmed, the marriage plans still did not progress. Growing increasingly suspicious, A demanded in September 2024 that he at least settle the money she had lent him. The man promised to repay her by the agreed deadline.
But even after the deadline passed, no payment was made.
When A confronted him, the man offered the following excuses:
“Because the transfer amount was large, I had a junior colleague present when I made the transfer.”
“The bank’s system failure prevented the money from being deposited.”
Suspicious of his explanation, A contacted the junior colleague who the man claimed had witnessed the transfer, and the truth was finally revealed.
The junior colleague told A:
“He said that after A became pregnant, she became emotionally unstable and demanded ¥4 million in compensation from the defendant. He told me he had already transferred ¥3 million but was short ¥1 million, and asked me to lend him the money.”
Incredibly, the man had lied to his junior colleague, claiming that A was unfairly demanding compensation from him, in order to gain sympathy and borrow another ¥1 million.
The borrowed ¥1 million was later sent to A through online banking as a supposed repayment.
In other words, to hide his own selfish lies, the man deceived even his junior colleague, borrowed ¥1 million from him, and then transferred that money to A. He had created an elaborate and deeply tangled scheme of deception and debt.
The truth about his marriage finally comes out—and his selfish claims in court
After reaching her limit due to his repeated suspicious behavior and lies, A confronted the man in October 2024 with an acquaintance present.
According to reports, when the acquaintance began by saying, “(I) know everything about all the lies you’ve told,” the man finally admitted the truth. He confessed that he was still married, still had a wife and child, and had never actually divorced. In the end, he reportedly got down on his knees and apologized at the entrance of A’s home.
The apartment contract for their planned life together and the story about changing jobs were all lies. A had believed they would marry, undergone fertility treatment with him, and finally welcomed the new life they had hoped for. But the man who was supposed to become the child’s father was actually a married man with a wife and child, someone who had been asking her for money from the very beginning of their relationship and piling lie upon lie without hesitation.
Despite A having clearly told him that she would never date a married person, he deceived her by pretending to be single. After she became pregnant, he revealed the truth, and the series of wrongful acts left A suffering from depression.
The case then moved to court.
In response to A’s claims of violation of her right to sexual autonomy and failure to fulfill their engagement, the defendant presented the following arguments:
“There was never any intention to propose marriage with the purpose of living together as a true married couple.”
“Because A was emotionally unstable, I was unable to bring up breaking up with her.”
The man repeatedly shifted responsibility onto the victim, making self-serving claims throughout the proceedings.
The court, however, rejected those arguments.
Based on the fact that the two had pursued fertility treatment and made other life plans with marriage as their goal from the beginning of the relationship, the ruling stated:
“It is recognized that a legally protected engagement had been established between plaintiff A and the defendant.”
Regarding the fact that the man was already married, the court also ruled:
“In cases where the other party entered into the engagement without knowing that the person already had a spouse, an engagement with a married person should still be considered worthy of legal protection.”
In other words, an engagement made under the belief that the other person was single can still receive legal protection even if that person was actually married.
The court strongly criticized the man’s claims, stating:
“The defendant’s arguments have consistently been self-serving and lacking consideration for the plaintiff A’s feelings. It is clear that the defendant broke off the engagement without any legitimate reason.”
The man was ordered to pay approximately ¥4.66 million in damages, including ¥4 million in compensation for emotional distress.
“I lost my wallet.”
“It was a system failure.”
The man’s actions, built on childish lies, deeply damaged one woman’s life and emotional well-being. However, under current Japanese law, there is no direct criminal penalty specifically for this type of fake single deception.
It remains an extremely frustrating case.
The woman is reportedly now raising a daughter as a single mother.