Ryuta Watanabe YouTube community

The household of Japanese YouTuber Ryuta Watanabe (38), who drew both controversy and attention by publicly sharing his ‘polygynous’ life with three wives, has ultimately fallen apart.

Recently, Watanabe posted a video on his YouTube channel titled ‘The Full Story of the Polygynous Collapse,’ effectively announcing the dissolution of his family. Having lived in Hokkaido, Japan with three wives and four children without filing a marriage registration, he stated on camera, “We are disbanding now.”

It began with financial hardship and differences in lifestyle. In the video, the first wife said firmly, “It is no longer feasible to continue living like this,” and Watanabe also indicated that the conflict had reached its peak, saying, “To be honest, I was struggling too and thought about moving out.”

Shueisha

The decisive blow came during a family meeting late last year aimed at improving their revenue structure. In the end, the first and third wives took all four children and returned to their parents’ homes, and the community that had emphasized harmony collapsed. At present, only the second wife, who has no children, remains by Watanabe’s side.

At one point, he boasted of earning more than 12 million won per month through his work as an influencer, but it has emerged that he is now facing severe financial hardship. He revealed that he has only about 110,000 yen (about 1 million won) left in his bank account, and that his finances deteriorated to the point that he even spent several days living and sleeping in his car in minus 7-degree weather.

He said, “I endured inside a car in subzero temperatures without heating, thinking of my family,” and admitted that he has even lost housing stability, as he is scheduled to move out of his current home at the end of this month.

In the past, he had boasted that he would break Shogun Tokugawa Ienari’s record of ‘53 children’ by fathering 54, but he shifted the blame for the current collapse from ‘failure’ to ‘a society that cannot accept diversity.’ He added, “I will use my current anger and frustration as nourishment to begin ‘Polygyny, Chapter 2,’” expressing his intention to push ahead with auditions to recruit new wife candidates.