Okada Yoshinori & Tabata Tomoko announce their marriage

Okada Yoshinori and Tabata Tomoko announced through their respective agencies on 9 January that they had gotten married on New Year's Day. The couple released a joint statement written by Tabata where they said that after many twists and turns in their six and a half years relationship, the two of them managed to reach where they are thanks to the help and support of many people around them. Although the two of them are still immature, they will join forces to build a happy family. According to their agencies, the couple registered their marriage at Tabata's hometown in Kyoto City and there are no plans for a wedding and honeymoon at the moment. They are already living together and Tabata is not pregnant at the moment. There will not be any press conference held with regard to this matter.


The couple started dating after they met while working on the stage play "Warai no Machi" in 2011 and news of their relationship first surfaced in September of the same year. However, they had also reportedly gone through repeated breakups all this while. In November 2015, Tabata was sent to the hospital for a cut on her left wrist by accident while she was said to be cooking at Okada's apartment but this led to rumours of it being a failed suicide attempt. Although news of them breaking up came out again in January 2016, Tabata was quoted as saying in a Sankei Sports interview last January that the two of them were on the road towards marriage. Okada's departure from his agency last September and the establishment of his personal agency was seen as a move to prepare for marriage.

According to insiders, Okada and Tabata went for a pre-marriage trip in December last year and went to Tabata's home in Kyoto on New Year's Eve to seek her parents' permission for the marriage. It had been reported before that Tabata's parents who own a longstanding traditional Japanese restaurant in Gion, had objected to the marriage previously. Okada is currently appearing in the NTV Winter 2018 drama "Todome no Kiss" while Tabata is expected to make a public appearance for her new movie "Yoshimoto Shin Kigeki Eiga Joshikousei Tantei Ai-chan" in February.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo