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Former AKB48 Idol Miki Nishino Marries Comedian Keiichi Yamamoto

Comedy duo Gokuraku Tombo member Keiichi Yamamoto announced on his YouTube channel on Tuesday that he has married the former AKB48 idol Miki Nishino. (The date, November 22, is "Good Married Couples Day" in Japan.)

Nishino is 23 years old, while Yamamoto is 54. In a livestream on Wednesday, the couple revealed that they first met on the set of a television show in 2018.

They began to grow more intimate in March 2022 and would eat out together. Nishino messaged Yamamoto to say "I wonder if I have feelings for you. But that's impossible, right?" Later, while eating together, she confessed that she could not get him out of her mind. They discussed whether or not they should have a relationship. Yamamoto confessed that he loved Nishino at a gathering of fellow celebrities, which made Nishino decide that their feelings were genuine.

After they started dating, Yamamoto would regularly ask Nishino to marry him. Nishino remarked that Yamamoto might have proposed to her around 50 times.

Publicly, the two were seen together on an ABEMA variety show in 2020, where they participated in a joke segment pretending to be a couple. Nishino also appeared in a video celebrating Yamamoto's 54th birthday in February 2022.

Nishino debuted as an AKB48 member in 2012 at the age of 13. She graduated from the group in 2017. She is now primarily active as a variety show talent and idol under the Twin Planet agency.

Yamamoto joined the Yoshimoto Kōgyō group in 1989. In 2006, the group terminated his contract after he faced a sexual assault charge against a 17-year-old girl. The charge was settled out of court. Yamamoto returned to the agency in 2016, and is currently active as a YouTube entertainer.

[Via Arama! Japan, Daily]