40-year-old Yoshitaka has been happily married to 65-year-old Aki for over eleven years, despite only learning about the age gap between them on the day before their wedding.

Yoshitaka was only 29 when he met the love of his life. Aki was running a Japanese-style bar and after making some small talk, they realized they had very much in common.

They had both gone through failed marriages and were raising children alone, and after visiting Aki’s bar a few times, Yoshitaka asked her out on a date.

The Japanese man could tell she was a bit older than him, but he never guessed her real age and she didn’t reveal it either, fearing that it would just scare him away.

She was 54 at the time, but told Yoshitaka that she was 44, and he never suspected anything. Aki was always cheerful and her smooth skin didn’t betray her age, so she was able to keep her secret for seven years, up until the day before their wedding.

In early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was getting ready to ravage the world, Aki and Yoshitaka decided to get married. Realising that she could get infected herself and that Yoshitaka would need to know her real age so not to confuse doctors or first responders, Aki decided to tell him she was 25 years older than him.

She didn’t know how he would react but feared he would be furious that she had lied to him for so long. She couldn’t be more wrong.

“I don’t mind your real age at all, it doesn’t matter,” Yoshitaka told his bride-to-be. “What matters is why you didn’t tell me earlier so you wouldn’t have to worry for so long.”

After getting married, the Japanese couple decided to quit their jobs and just travel around Japan, documenting their adventures on a YouTube channel called “A couple with a 25-year age difference”. At one point, they started an online air-conditioning cleaning service that they promoted through social media.

Yoshitaka and Aki’s story first went viral in 2021 when it made news headlines in Japan and China, but it recently resurfaced after being featured by the Japanese newspaper Bunshun Online. The 65-year-old woman told the publication that part of the reason she kept her real age a secret from Yoshitaka was Japanese society’s prejudice against older women dating or marrying younger men.

“Older men can proudly show off how young and beautiful their wives are, but many women who are older than their husbands often hesitate to reveal their relationships to others,” Aki said.