Anri Sakaguchi’s Ex-Husband Shinichi Fukushima Opens Up About Their Turbulent Year Together Despite Warnings
[Part 1] They Met in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho in ’22 and Got Married
How They Met and Got Married
Fukushima Shinichi first met Anri Sakaguchi (35) in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district in 2022. It happened when a host he knew brought her as a customer to the bar where Fukushima (36) was working at the time. Fukushima, who says he wasn’t very familiar with the entertainment world, didn’t even realize that the woman standing in front of him was Anri Sakaguchi.
“My first impression was that she was a quiet person. But the moment the host who had come with her told her that I’d undergone gender-affirming surgery, she leaned forward and suddenly opened up to me, saying, ‘Wait, you used to be a woman? I never would have guessed!’”
Anri later started working at the same bar and eventually moved into Fukushima’s home, telling him that she felt safe when she was with him. He still remembers the night she confided in him that she couldn’t sleep peacefully when she was alone.
“Deep down, she was honest, kind, warmhearted, and somehow impossible to dislike. Those were the things I loved about Anri. I decided to start a relationship with her because I wanted to protect her. People around me tried to stop me, saying, ‘Stay away from Anri Sakaguchi. She’ll ruin your life.’ But the more time I spent with her, the more I came to understand how much she had been through. That’s when I made up my mind to stand by her.”
Anri was still struggling with the grief of losing her beloved mother, Ryoko. After being deceived by unscrupulous people who had approached her hoping to take advantage of her now that she was alone, she had also developed a deep distrust of others. It was a seemingly casual remark from the emotionally wounded Anri that ultimately convinced Fukushima to marry her.
“Anri had nowhere to live, so I messaged her and said, ‘You can stay another night if you want.’ She replied, ‘It’s fine. My luggage is too heavy.’ I realized she really wanted me to come and get her. I could sense the loneliness hidden beneath those indirect words, and that’s when I decided I wanted to marry her.”
It was June 2022.
10 sheets of sleeping pills a day
Although all the cases ultimately ended without prosecution, Anri had developed a firmly established reputation as a troublemaking woman, having run into trouble with the police over incidents involving alleged extortion, unlawful entry into a residence, and shoplifting. Fukushima says, however, that the person she was at home was different.
“When people who know her only from the news meet her in person, they’re usually surprised and say, ‘She’s actually a good person.’ Whether she’s talking to a celebrity or an ordinary person, Anri listens to them as an equal and shows empathy for what they’re going through. She’s a kindhearted person.”
According to Fukushima, Anri only turned into the “troublemaking woman” people knew from the headlines when she drank heavily or took excessive amounts of sleeping medication.
“Perhaps because she’d spent so many years working in jobs where she had to drink alcohol, Anri’s liver function readings were poor, so she didn’t drink much at home. The bigger struggle for me was her sleeping pills. After her mother died, she could no longer sleep and began taking them. Her beloved mother was always present in her heart, yet in reality, her mother was no longer there. She struggled constantly with how to fill that emptiness, and her insomnia was part of that struggle. As time went on, she began taking more and more medication.”
There was no set schedule for when she took the pills. Even when she was relatively calm, she reportedly took at least three blister packs a day—30 pills in total. When she was emotionally unstable, she sometimes took around 10 packs.
“The hardest part was seeing how drastically she changed when she overdosed. Her attitude and tone of voice became harsh, and she would lash out at the person closest to her—the person she trusted most. She said things to me like, ‘I should have married a man,’ ‘I can’t have children with you, after all,’ and ‘You’re just a woman, in the end.’ Even though I knew she didn’t really mean those things, they hurt me deeply. I think Anri was suffering, too.”
[Click here for Part 2] I watched as all sorts of people tried to get in touch with Anri… Anri Sakaguchi’s ex-husband, Shinichi Fukushima, speaks out
From the October 16, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”
Reporting & Text： Chihiro Sato PHOTO： Kazuhiko Nakamura (2nd photo)