China News Service, Beijing, January 28 (Reporter Liu Xingchen) "Everyone typed '爱香' on the public screen, and we took screenshots to give out lipsticks to the lucky viewers."
On the evening of the 28th, former Japanese table tennis player Ai Fukuhara started a live broadcast on the short video platform. This is the latter's rare public appearance since the Japanese media revealed in November last year that it had launched an investigation into Fukuhara's "kidnapping of his son."
divorce turmoil
For Chinese fans, Ai Fukuhara is not an unfamiliar name.
Public information shows that Ai Fukuhara, who was born in 1988, started playing table tennis at the age of 3. He was once the main player of the Japanese national team and participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics when he was 15 years old. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she led the team to win the bronze medal in the women's team and ranked fourth in the women's singles.
After the Rio Olympics, Fukuhara Ai and Chinese Taipei table tennis player Jiang Hongjie announced their marriage and gave birth to a daughter in 2017.
The picture shows Fukuhara Ai and Jiang Hongjie. (Data map)
In October 2018, Ai Fukuhara announced her retirement. In April 2019, Ai Fukuhara gave birth to a son for the second time.
Japanese media said that in July 2021, Fukuhara Ai and Jiang Hongjie divorced. On July 27 last year, Jiang Hongjie held a press conference in Tokyo regarding the ownership of his children.
According to Taiwanese media China News Network's report at the time, Jiang Hongjie told the media that he received the judgment result from the Japanese court, "The content is the court's order requiring Miss Fukuhara Ai to deliver the child to me. I am very grateful to the Japanese court for the judgment. I also hope that You can meet your child soon."
At that time, Jiang Hongjie also revealed that Fukuhara Ai told him that she would not implement the court order, which made Jiang Hongjie feel uneasy. A lawyer who attended the press conference with Jiang Hongjie said that if Ai Fukuhara refuses to voluntarily hand over the child to Jiang Hongjie, as an option, "we will consider taking Ai Fukuhara to court for committing the crime of abduction of a minor."
In response, Fukuhara Ai’s attorney has issued statements multiple times in response. Ai Fukuhara claimed that her son felt insecure following Jiang Hongjie, and that Jiang Hongjie's public quarrel was to kill Ai Fukuhara.
In November last year, Japanese media reported that the local Police Department had launched an investigation into Fukuhara Ai's "kidnapping of his son." If Fukuhara Ai is ultimately found guilty, the latter may face a prison sentence of more than 2 years and less than 20 years.
"Considering the social impact, the Investigation Section 1 is handling Fukuhara's case as a special case. According to Article 226 of Japan's Criminal Code, Fukuhara Ai's case may be suspected of kidnapping children abroad." Japanese media "Shukan Bunshun" reported The report on November 3 read this.
Screenshot of Japanese media reports.
Japanese media reported that after the court's decision, Ai Fukuhara did not hand over her son to Jiang Hongjie and continued to live with the child outside Japan. Jiang Hongjie eventually lost patience with Fukuhara Ai and filed a criminal complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department.
Regarding these measures by the Japanese police, Fukuhara Ai accepted an interview with Japanese media on November 3 and responded: "We have received inquiries (from the Metropolitan Police Department), but we have talked with lawyers and heard that there are no problems. .”
Start live broadcast
The live broadcast on the evening of the 28th was Fukuhara Ai’s rare public appearance after the divorce incident. Regarding this live broadcast, as of press time, Fukuhara Ai has released a total of 8 videos to warm up for it.
According to the reporter's observation, 5 minutes after the broadcast started, the number of likes in the live broadcast room exceeded 20,000. Ten minutes after the broadcast started, the number of people online reached 10,000.
Image source: Screenshot of live broadcast
In the pre-heating video, Fukuhara Ai said that she has been training with her coach in China since she was a child and she likes the Chinese traditional festival Spring Festival very much.
After the live broadcast started on the 28th, Fukuhara Ai and her personal coach Tang Yuanyuan also interacted with netizens on past training, Chinese Spring Festival customs, Chinese food and other topics.
Some netizens commented, “Welcome Ai Fukuhara to Sichuan, I’ll treat you to Sichuan food.”
Image source: Screenshot of live broadcast
Since then, Fukuhara Ai and her assistant conducted a live broadcast to sell goods, including: Year of the Dragon red envelopes, paper towels, toothbrushes, mobile phone case decorations, laundry beads and other daily necessities. According to reports, the products sold in this live broadcast were personally experienced and recommended by Fukuhara Ai.
However, when Ai Fukuhara started the "selling goods" mode, the focus of netizens in the live broadcast room was not entirely focused on the products. Many people were concerned about the status of Ai Fukuhara, who had not appeared for a long time. However, apart from selling goods, Fukuhara Ai did not share much about her current life.
The entire live broadcast lasted about 1 hour and 50 minutes, and data showed that a total of 1.409 million people watched it. Fukuhara Ai revealed before the end of the live broadcast that she has plans to come to China in the future. (over)