Private detectives are something of a cottage industry in Japan: they derive much of their clientele from men or women (but especially women) who suspect their spouses of adultery. Catching them in the act or at least gathering concrete evidence of adultery will lead to a better payout in a divorce. Many such services specialize in discreet teams of female agents with hidden cameras.
One recent story seems to start off in the usual manner.
A wife suspected her husband (not pictured) of adultery and hired an agency to snoop around. The warning signs were there.
Her husband would disappear on his days off. He would spend long periods of time in the bath looking at his phone. He would get home from late. He rented a locked storage space.
But the agency didn’t find evidence of adultery. Instead, he was just an otaku who was pursuing his fandom. He was a massive Hatsune Miku fan and was looking forward to the Magical Mirai concert featuring the virtual Vocaloid idol.
On those days off when he was mysteriously absent, he was actually going to karaoke by himself or searching for merchandise. In the bath, he was listening to his favorite songs (not messaging a lover). In the storage space, he was simply hiding his merchandise.
The agency brought photographs to the wife showing her husband enjoying karaoke alone, playing a UFO Catcher crane game to get Miku merch, clutching a piece of merch from a Hatsune Miku collaboration with a convenience store, and changing into a happi jacket in a parking lot near the Magical Mirai venue.
So, not the kind of offense that it going to result in a payoff for the wife, though it might still be bad enough for a woman to divorce her husband. Fortunately, this wife was understanding of her husband’s fandom and the two apparently remain married. We suspect the situation is helped by the fact that the otaku in question paid his wife’s (not insignificant) bill from the detective agency and treated her to a stay at Disneyland.
The anecdote broke online when it was shared on social media by Panda, the Hatsune Miku fan at the center of the story, and subsequently picked up by other media outlets like Unseen Japan.
