Nana & Yudai’s Love Is Blind: Japan Breakup, Explained

Love is Blind contestants may lay the foundation for their relationship in the pods, but the real test is whether or not their connection can survive once they meet and re-enter the real world. That test has been especially grueling for the daters on Love is Blind: Japan: though eight engaged couples headed to the hotel retreat together, a slew of breakups have followed. That includes Yudai and Nana, who bonded over tattoos and followed their hearts by diving right into an engagement but fell apart at the hotel once they began to delve more deeply into their core values. Here’s what to know.

Who is Yudai?

Yudai is a 23-year-old men’s hairstylist. He originally wanted to do professional baseball, but when it didn’t work out, he went after his second passion: hair and fashion. As someone with high aspirations, he told Nana that he “likes to see things through to the end.” He also has a number of tattoos, which are typically considered more taboo in Japan because they’ve been historically linked to gang culture.

Who is Nana?

Nana is a 31-year-old online marketer from Tokyo. Before coming on the show, Nana’s mom told her that if she ever gets butterflies for a guy, she should follow her heart no matter where it leads. Like Yudai, she once had a small tattoo, but she later got it removed.

Yudai and Nana’s relationship

The two’s relationship seemed to move quickly in the pods, but we weren’t shown many deep conversations between them. Nana seemed to like Yudai’s drive, while Yudai felt connected to her because of her past tattoo. Though they had a large age gap, Nana said it didn’t bother her because her close friend had a good relationship with a guy who was 12 years younger than her.

Still, Nana seemed surprised when Yudai asked to talk with her again and revealed he was interested. “If you’ll have me, I want to go to the next level with you,” he said. She was confused at first — and had to remind him that he had to propose — but seemed excited regardless.

“Yudai is so cool,” Nana said in a later confessional. “I mean, he just decided. It’s so manly. Once he decides on something, he follows through. That’s what he told me, so I’m going to believe him.” Yudai also seemed taken aback by his own actions, since he said he never follows his heart.

Why did Yudai and Nana break up?

When Yudai and Nana first got to the hotel, the hosts were surprised that the two were already holding hands, but said it was a good sign. The two seemed to bond while riding ATVs, and agreed to hold deeper conversations before they jumped into marriage.

But in Episode 6, the rest of the couples got together for a party and Yudai showed up alone. He told everyone it was complicated, but explained that as he and Nana spent more time together, they realized their “core values” weren’t the same. “After meeting her in person, I couldn’t reach the goal of marrying her,” he said plainly, shocking the other contestants.

As it turns out, their age gap did matter quite a lot — a fact they discovered on the first day of the retreat. While swimming in the pool together, Nana returned to a topic that was brought up in the pods: raising children. Yudai said in the pods that he would leave it up to the woman to decide when and how many kids to have. So Nana told him that because she was 32 now, she wanted to have kids within the next two years. In response, Yudai suddenly admitted he wasn’t ready to start a family so soon. “It makes me nervous,” he said. “Will I have a proper living situation to raise children?”

Dumbfounded, Nana told him he should have shared his hesitation about kids sooner. “What you told me in the pods and how you truly feel are completely different,” she said. She didn’t understand why he changed his mind. Yudai revealed in his confessional that the time in the pods didn’t seem real, but he felt “the weight of each word” once he had met her in person. He admitted he should’ve taken the proposal more seriously from the start.

The two still seemed to be at an impasse that night, with Yudai admitting that he “felt afraid to talk” to Nana. At this point, their differences seemed unsurmountable. “I found myself not being able to accept her,” he told the camera.

So Nana packed up her bags and left the hotel. “I found out after talking to Yudai that I’m not the girlfriend or the wife he was looking for,” she said. “I fell for him. That’s a fact. So I’m grateful. I have no regrets.”

What are Nana and Yudai doing now?

Based on Nana and Yudai’s Instagrams, they’re both doing well. Yudai continues to cut and style hair, and it sounds like some foreign viewers have been shooting their shot with him since the show began airing. “Thank you for all the DMs. I'm embarrassed but I can't return it, but I'm reading it!” he wrote in a Feb. 17 Instagram post. “I'm sad that I can't speak English and don't use translation.”

As for Nana, she continues to care for her plants and practice yoga, and recently marathoned Emily in Paris. Ultimately, Nana hasn’t let the experience weigh her down. In a Feb. 17 Instagram story, she reposted a tweet about a Tinder billboard and added her own laughing and clapping emojis. “Netflix, matchmaking without looking at their faces?” the Tinder add reads. “Isn’t it better to use Tinder than that?”