Wataru is the stepfather of Junichiro and the husband of Michiko. He was first mentioned in the Season 6 episode "Returning Japanese" and only appeared in "Returning Japanese II".
Appearance[]
Wataru is an elderly Japanese man with a chubby build, tan skin with a few liver spots on his head, and short, receding gray hair. He wears trapezoid-framed glasses, a dark-blue suit, and a white dress shirt.
History[]
Ten years after World War II, he met the single mother Michiko who, immediately after the war during the Allied occupation of Japan, had given birth to Junichiro with Cotton Hill out of wedlock. Wataru married her and was willing to help her raise him, becoming a father figure to Junichiro, who has mentioned that he fishes for mackerel every morning.
Season 6[]
Decades later, in the 1990s-2000s, when Cotton returned to Japan to meet Michiko and his Japanese son, he met her and Wataru when Michiko had returned to their residence after being previously away to view cherry blossoms in Nagoya. As he ate his meal, Wataru briefly and nonchalantly looked up when Michiko mentioned her parental history and introduced him to the others. When Junichiro rejected Cotton's apology and began arguing with him, Wataru continued to eat without concern, even ignoring Cotton angrily redeclaring war on Japan and jumping through the adjacent shoji.