Ichie (いちえ), one half of the popular YouTube duo Yoru no Hitowarai (夜のひと笑い), has broken up with her boyfriend Ryo (りょう) for a second time, the channel revealed in a video posted on August 5, 2026. The announcement came just months after the pair had publicly reconciled in June.
Yoru no Hitowarai, a channel with over 1.89 million subscribers, is run by Ichie and her co-host Koh (こう). The two originally launched the channel as a couple, but announced their own breakup in November 2021 and have continued posting together as friends ever since.
Ichie first announced she was dating Ryo, then also a YouTuber, in October 2023. The couple broke up in January 2025, then showed themselves getting back together in a video posted in June 2026.
In the August 5 video, Koh, Ichie, Ryo, and Koh’s girlfriend Pin-chan (ピンちゃん) all appeared together. Koh opened by telling viewers, “Ichie and Ryo have broken up,” before Ichie confirmed it herself, saying, “We talked about a lot of things, and we decided to break up.”
Ichie acknowledged that many fans had hoped the couple would eventually marry, saying she felt some pressure to meet those expectations. But she explained that living up to fan hopes wasn’t worth it if it didn’t make her and Ryo happy, adding, “We really, really talked it through, and decided to break up.”
Describing the reason for the split, Ichie said their values simply didn’t align: “Our ways of thinking were just different, and honestly that’s really the whole reason. What Ryo-kun wanted and what I wanted didn’t match up, even after talking it over many times.” She added that after a long period of discussion, they both concluded they were better off as friends than as a couple, and that there was no infidelity involved. Both said they had come to feel Ryo might not be Ichie’s “last” partner, and vice versa.
Ichie also reflected on what might have happened had they pushed forward regardless: “Even if we’d forced ourselves to get married, I think we definitely would have ended up breaking up anyway.”
Who is Ichie?
Ichie is a Japanese YouTuber and one of the two hosts of Yoru no Hitowarai, a channel with more than 1.89 million subscribers. The channel began as a couple vlog with co-host Koh before the pair split in 2021 and continued working together as friends and creative partners. Since then, Ichie’s on-again, off-again relationship with fellow YouTuber Ryo has been a recurring storyline followed closely by the channel’s audience.
Following the announcement, Koh, Ichie, Ryo, and Pin-chan remained on good terms on camera, suggesting the breakup was amicable. It remains to be seen how the changing relationship dynamics will affect future collaborations between Ichie, Koh, and Ryo on the channel.
Author’s Comment
I have to give these two credit: breaking up on camera once is content, but doing it twice with the same person, in front of the same fans who were practically planning the wedding, takes real nerve. And yet I respect it more than the fake "we’re forever" couple content everyone else in the influencer world churns out. Japanese fans love shipping their favorite creators straight to the altar, but Ichie flatly saying that forcing a marriage would’ve just delayed the inevitable is the most grown-up thing I’ve heard out of a YouTuber relationship saga in a while. Four people in one room to sort this out, new girlfriend included? That’s either painfully awkward or Japanese conflict-avoidance executed to perfection. Either way, nobody’s the villain here, no cheating, no drama, just two people who tried twice and learned the same lesson twice. I’ll take that over a scripted breakup any day.
