Ken Watanabe admits having had extramarital affair

Jul 17, 2017 | News On Japan

Jul 17, 2017 (Japan Today) - Popular actor Ken Watanabe, 57, has publicly admitted that he had been in an extramarital affair as rumored since earlier this year.

The actor, wearing a gray suit and a black tie, appeared in front of journalists at a press conference in Tokyo on July 15, approximately four months after the news of the affair first broke in tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun in March.

"Most of what is written in the (Shukan Bunshun) article is true," Watanabe told reporters, after apologizing for taking so long to talk about the matter. "I am deeply sorry for making my fans, supporters and work-related staff worried over my frivolous actions. Above all, I am deeply sorry for having hurt my wife."

The March article, which reported on Watanabe seeing an unnamed 36-year-old Japanese woman in New York, caused a major stir in the Japanese media and a crack in Watanabe's presumably "ideal" marriage with actress Kaho Minami, 53.

Watanabe and Minami have been married since 2005, and have been looked upon as one of the most stable couples in the Japanese show business world, having undergone major health issues together, including Watanabe's battle with leukemia in 2016.

The March article, however, showed Watanabe --- known for his roles in The Last Samurai, Inception and the Broadway musical The King and I --- holding hands with the woman in Central Park in New York. The photo was reportedly taken in mid-February. Other photos showed the two taking a selfie and having dinner at a restaurant.

The magazine also reported that the two had been together for over three years, though Watanabe said that "it wasn't continuing for the entire time," suggesting that they were seeing each other on and off during this time. Watanabe's affair was supposedly taking place in the same time when his wife, Minami, was fighting an early stage of breast cancer that she was diagnosed with in February 2016.

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