Japanese actress Chiharu Niiyama (新山千春), 45, has shared new details about the path that led to her second marriage, revealing that she and her current husband, who is 14 years younger, first connected through a dating app, according to an interview with AERA Digital.
Niiyama married for the first time at age 23 and welcomed a daughter, Moa. The marriage ended in divorce in 2014, when Moa was eight years old. In the interview, Niiyama said that period of her life was defined by trying to do everything herself: working, raising her daughter, and caring for her own mother, who was ill at the time, all while carrying the pressure of being “an athlete’s wife” to her then-husband.
Niiyama said she pushed herself especially hard during that chapter, feeling she needed to handle every responsibility perfectly and alone. It wasn’t until she met her current husband that she began to notice herself changing, gradually easing the instinct to overextend herself in every part of her life.
She illustrated the shift with a simple, domestic example: no longer feeling obligated to prepare “one more dish” at the dinner table just to prove she was doing enough. For Niiyama, holding back in small ways has become a symbol of a broader, healthier approach to family life the second time around, one built together with her daughter and her new husband as a step-family.
Who is Chiharu Niiyama?
Chiharu Niiyama is a Japanese actress and television personality who has been a familiar face in Japanese entertainment for decades. She first married in her early twenties and became a single mother after her divorce in 2014, raising her daughter, Moa, largely on her own while continuing to work in the industry. She has since remarried a man 14 years her junior, whom she met through a dating app, and now describes building a step-family alongside her daughter and new husband.
Author’s Comment
Okay, a dating app romance for a 45-year-old actress — be honest, doesn’t that just make you smile a little? I love that she’s not pretending the ‘perfect wife’ era was some golden age; she’s flat-out saying she ran herself into the ground trying to be everything to everyone. That’s about the most Japanese confession I’ve heard all week: overworking yourself silent until a divorce forces you to admit it. Fourteen years younger, met on an app, building a step-family — sure, the internet will have opinions, but honestly? Good for her. The bravest thing a woman who’s already ‘done everything right’ once can do is admit she’d rather just… not make the extra dish.
