Japan’s biggest variety Twitch streamer, Junichi Kato, has been embroiled in a cheating scandal this week after admitting to fans he’d be unfaithful to his wife of two years, but instead of bringing him into disrepute, the sombre admission appears to have actually bolstered his fanbase—and even led to a surge in streaming donations.
Kato, better known as “Unko-chan” to his many streaming fans, broke the news he’d been unfaithful in a Sept. 16 livestream, nearly a week after being spotted at Dodger Stadium in L.A. with a woman suspected to be adult entertainer Ai Hongo. “I wanted to do it,” he said while apologizing to his gathered fans, adding his “shoulders are down.” Kato had previously claimed he had only travelled to Dodger Stadium to see Shohei Ohtani play.
The near-instant response was particularly surprising, however, with most Unko-chan streaming fans supporting him. Incredibly, as he spoke, more and more fans piled into the broadcast and began buying subscriptions and making large donations.
Kato was, unsurprisingly, quite stunned and admitted he’d been expecting to lose whole droves of fans after the admission. After laughing and clapping in shock, the 39-year-old then decided his fans must not have understood the situation properly and tried to explain it to them again. “I had an affair,” he said. “My sub count’s going up… I’m trash, right? Don’t you think I’m trash? I lied and tricked women. Let me say it multiple times. I lied and tricked multiple women and had affairs.” He then bowed to his fast-moving chat several times.
This controversy appears to have done little to shake Unko-chan’s grip on Japan’s Twitch scene, with he and fps_shaka (1.48m followers) first and second as the most-watched stars. The 39-year-old—who streams under the title “うん〇ちゃん”—even cleared Twitch stalwarts like Adin Ross, Hasan, and StableRonaldo in hours watched this month. Only Dota 2‘s English and Russian channels, which were spurred on by The International 2024, ran higher.
At the time of writing, Kato’s Twitch subscribers has leaped to 8,584 after a 25 percent hike. His attempted apology livestream peaked at just over 139,000 concurrent viewers.
Earlier, Ai Hongo had addressed the cheating rumors to her own fans, sharing a lengthy YouTube vlog where the 24-year-old admitted to having a sexual and romantic relationship with the star. She claimed Kato had told her he was already divorced and that said after she found out that had been a lie she had felt “tricked into the relationship.”
Kato had allegedly refused to publicize their relationship or the divorce he’d claimed had already happened, even after she begged him several times. Hongo said she self-harmed several times due to the anguish of the situation she had found herself in. This then led to her pushing Kato to going out in public with her—a conversation that eventually led to the high-profile pair being spotted at Dodgers Stadium earlier this month.
The 24-year-old adult entertainer had also reportedly been dating someone at the time, and she apologized to the unnamed other man several times in her video.
Amid the controversy, Kato did confirm he’s been separated from his wife for some time, though they kept it a secret and are still married. The pair made history with their wedding in 2022 when they livestreamed the reception and collected 217,587,306 yen (US $1.84 million) worth of donations from over 104,000 Super Chat donations.
Kato’s mega-sized wedding broadcast was multistreamed across both YouTube and Twitch, where it raked in 463,646 and 111,196 simultaneous live viewers respectively.
The 39-year-old superstar streamer also owns pro esports team Murash Gaming.
