The Collapse of “Polygamy”! The Background of the Seven Beauties Now in the “Kept Man’s” Life—and His “Terrifying Ambition”

Ryuta Watanabe (38), an influencer who calls himself “the polygamous kept man,” has been sharing his “extended family life” with three wives and four children.

With over 50,000 YouTube subscribers, he has garnered attention by continuing to candidly share his extreme lifestyle of polygamy.

However, his life has already changed dramatically.

At the end of last year, he posted a video titled “The Entire Story of the Collapse of My Polygamous Marriage.” Afterward, two of his wives and four of his children left home, and he now lives with Ayaka, the only one who remained.On August 8, he officially registered his marriage with Ayaka. Watanabe, who once maintained a large household of eight and championed “polygamy,” has ironically become legally “monogamous.”

His YouTube channel, where he used to share the daily life of his large family, is currently inactive. What exactly is happening to Watanabe, who gained attention by promoting polygamy?

“Polygamy is over.”

When asked about his current situation, despite having just registered their marriage, he began speaking slowly and haltingly with a gloomy expression: “Right now, I’m in a manic-depressive state…”

“The sense of loss from my family getting smaller is overwhelming, and I can’t bring myself to do anything. I just don’t feel like doing anything at all. And I’m not in a polygamous relationship anymore, either.”

He currently lives alone with Ayaka—the only one of his wives remaining in Hokkaido—and hasn’t been updating his YouTube channel, which is a major source of income. “I haven’t announced it publicly, but I’m taking August off,” he said, looking down.

“I’ve always had some bipolar-like tendencies. When I’m high-energy, I go all out and do all kinds of things; when I’m low, I just stop. Even so, I used to have kids and a family, and since I had to provide for everyone, I pushed myself. Basically, they were my fuel.”

He also mentioned that there was a time when his relationship with Ayaka was on the verge of ending.

“Was it about a month ago? There was a time when I thought about moving out. When I’m feeling down, I just want to shut everything out. It doesn’t matter who the other person is, you know. Well, in the end, we’re still getting along just fine.”

Although Watanabe has a strong image of being a high-energy, go-getter, his mood was subdued, and he kept talking about nothing but negative things. Just as I was hesitating over whether to call off the interview, he suddenly changed his tone and said , “The only thing that’s going well is my relationships with women.”

“Even though I’m in this state right now, I actually have seven new girlfriends. If you count my legal wife, Ayaka, that makes eight in total.”

Even though he’d said he couldn’t focus on work, how could he possibly manage seven girlfriends…? As I stood there dumbfounded, the kept man began to speak at length.

“My first girlfriend is the one closest to being my ‘main wife’ right now. She’s a preschool teacher, and we’ve been dating for a year and a half. We’re trying to get pregnant, and I think we’ll move in together once we have a child. The second one is a 32-year-old woman who works at an ice cream shop; I met her on Tinder a little while ago. We just started dating, so we’re not trying to get pregnant yet.”

All seven women reportedly know that he is a polygamous YouTuber and are dating him while being fully aware of the existence of his wife, Ayaka, as well as his other girlfriends.

30,000 yen each time from two married women

“I met my third girlfriend on Tinder, too. She’s a 46-year-old married woman.”

A bold declaration of infidelity…! What’s more, this isn’t just a casual relationship.

“She’s a doctor, and her family are investors. They’re incredibly wealthy, and she always shows up in some crazy imported car. It’s not like she wants to divorce her husband or anything—apparently, she just wanted a boyfriend younger than herself. I didn’t ask her for anything, but she gives me 30,000 yen every time we meet. It’s what you’d call a ‘sugar mom’ arrangement (laughs).”

He says he always receives this “allowance,” regardless of whether they have sex or not. Although she knows about his relationships and his job as a kept man, he says she “flew into a rage” (according to the kept man) when he posted a quick glimpse of her from behind on his Instagram Story.

“She’s married, so I guess it’s natural she’d get angry. She was so furious that I was startled and deleted it right away. Even though there’s absolutely no way she’d find out… My fourth girlfriend is the oldest at 50. She’s technically my girlfriend, but it feels more like a casual hookup. She’s an incredibly beautiful, ageless woman and super sexy.

She’s a single mother who runs several beauty-related companies, and her family is incredibly wealthy. She lives in an office building, not an apartment. ‘I’ve got to give you some spending money,’ she says—and she naturally gives me 30,000 yen. She seems very worldly, so I wonder if she’s had younger boyfriends in the past.”

While the average take-home pay for streetwalkers picking up clients at Okubo Park is said to be between 10,000 and 15,000 yen, 30,000 yen every time—whether sex happens or not—is quite a high amount. Does she actually offer that 30,000 yen herself?

“I didn’t suggest anything. I wasn’t even planning to get involved with a ‘mama-katsu’ to begin with, so it feels like a stroke of luck. Is that more than streetwalkers charge? Well, 30,000 yen for a date with a mature woman who’s definitely worth it—that might actually be a lucky deal.”

I was starting to feel disheartened, thinking, “There are still two more…?” but when I asked about the fifth girlfriend, he said, “We’ve been dating for two years now.”

“She’s a 29-year-old caregiver, and we met through a DM on X. She messaged me saying, ‘I want to have sex,’ and I thought she was just messing around, but she was serious (laughs). We’ve been together for a long time, but it’s a long-distance relationship—she lives in Yokohama, so we can only meet about once every two months.

We meet when I’m in Tokyo for work. We don’t see each other very often, and we don’t keep in touch much, but we’re actively trying to get pregnant. Since she’s originally from Hokkaido, we’ve agreed that if she gets pregnant, we’ll move in together.”

My sixth girlfriend is a 37-year-old single mother who says she’s trying to get pregnant, but actually, I have “another motive” for this relationship.

“Her parents are well-off, so she doesn’t work. She’s been divorced three times and has a 20-year-old daughter, but actually, that’s my real goal—I’d love to get a ‘mother-daughter set.’ She and her daughter are inseparable and very close, and she told me, ‘If we get married, my daughter will come along too,’ so I definitely want to marry her and get to know her daughter as well.”

It’s a typical Watanabe way of thinking, but I certainly can’t agree with it. There’s no way that could work.

By the time he got to his seventh and final girlfriend, even he was getting confused, asking , “Who was that again…?” After a brief silence, he laughed and said , “I remember!” before launching into his story.

“She’s my most recent girlfriend. She’s a 33-year-old medical administrator I met on Tinder recently. She’s been saying she wants a baby, so we’re trying to conceive. We plan to move in together once the baby is born.”

He had mentioned suffering from bipolar disorder, but with such a flamboyant love life, it’s hard to believe that right away.

“Actually, Ayaka had two miscarriages, and it really took a toll on both of us. Losing two wives and four children all at once, plus the death of a pet and the loss of a relative… It’s true that my mental state got to the point where I was considering hospitalization.

There are times when I feel like I could die at any moment. But when men get depressed, their sex drive actually kicks in. You see a lot of guys who get into fights with their wives and then turn to sex workers or affairs, right? Honestly, having sex actually lifts my spirits more than taking antidepressants.In my case, spending time with women leads to work opportunities, and it should ultimately lead to the revival of polygamy. Someone should get pregnant by the end of this year, and we’ll be back to our lively life.”

Will polygamy make a comeback!?