On April 17, 2026, former Angerme / Hello! Project idol Wada Ayaka — nickname “Ayacho” — announced on Instagram that she had registered her marriage in Taiwan. Now 31, she explained that she chose Taiwan because her partner is Taiwanese and because Taiwan is the only jurisdiction in East Asia that recognizes both same-sex marriage and optional dual surnames after marriage. She added that she hopes Japan will adopt both reforms “as soon as possible.”
Japan still requires married couples to share a single surname and does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019 and was the first Asian jurisdiction to do so. Wada has been an open advocate for both policies since before her departure from Hello! Project, making this less a personal surprise than a long-telegraphed statement.
Oricon’s announcement tweet drew roughly 300 replies in the first day, with visible amplification from anti-reform accounts. The conversation ended up as a near-laboratory sample of how the “like economy” on Japanese X skews against reform positions even when the raw reply count favors them.
“just leave Japan” replies
all 71 congratulations
The largest coherent theme, by far, framed Wada’s choice as an indictment of Japanese law rather than an individual decision. Commenters noted that she had to leave the country to marry the person she loves and that the story was “personal but also societal.” Many said the news made them “feel Japan’s lagging behind” and called for debate to move forward.
This theme is critical for UJ readers to see: the conversation on X is not split down the middle on whether Japan needs marriage equality and optional dual surnames. A clear majority of thoughtful replies treated those reforms as overdue. The disagreement is about how loudly to demand them.
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Over 70 replies were pure congratulations: “末永くお幸せに,” “ご結婚おめでとうございます,” “素敵な選択.” Many praised her for “staying true to her beliefs” from her idol-era advocacy through this milestone. These comments are genuine, but they are also low-engagement — celebration rarely accumulates likes the way outrage does.
A small but loud cluster told reform supporters to emigrate. The literal top-liked reply: “People who support optional dual-surname or same-sex marriage should fly overseas! These systems are 100% unnecessary in Japan… Fxxk off — I mean, Take off!” Copy-paste variants of this message appeared several times in the thread.
This is the standard rhetorical move of the nativist reform-opposition on Japanese X: reframe any call for legal change as a personal failing of the person asking, then suggest that Japan would be improved by their departure. That it accrued the single highest like count of any reply says more about the platform than about public opinion.
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The second-highest-liked reply dismisses Wada’s marriage to a woman as a product of past trauma: “Ayacho was put through hell by male Hello! Project otaku back in the day, so no surprise she ended up hating men.” A related comment asked “why does she have to hate men this much — a ‘lily’ [yuri] relationship is such a waste to look at from outside.”
This framing is distinct from the “go abroad” position: it doesn’t oppose reform, it erases lesbian identity by reducing it to heterosexual disappointment. The fact that it drew 164 likes suggests a mainstream-leaning audience still treats same-sex partnership as an explainable reaction rather than a valid choice.
A smaller, international-leaning bloc used the moment to note Taiwan’s regional-leadership position on marriage equality. Replies in English (“Taiwan really leading on marriage equality in Asia,” “Love knows no borders”) mixed with Japanese commentary on Taiwan being “the only Asian jurisdiction where both reforms exist.” The Taiwan-vs-Japan comparison was an uncomfortable subtext of the entire thread.
A tiny number of replies took an explicitly traditionalist position — that same-sex marriage would weaken family unity, that the traditional structure is a pillar of Japanese culture, and that Japan is better off rejecting these reforms. These comments drew almost no likes. This was notable: on a typical Japanese conservative-leaning thread, “preserve tradition” wins more engagement than “go abroad.” Here, the emigration framing clearly crowded out the more measured conservative position.
A large residual of one-line reactions — emoji strings, link-only quote-tweets, “cute!” and “congrats!” in dozens of languages, spam bots translating the article for @grok, and a single pointed journalism critique noting Oricon never explicitly confirmed the partner’s gender and just paraphrased Wada’s Instagram post.
