Actor Adam Chen leaves F&B industry due to concerns over impact of JB-Singapore RTS Link
Lim Ruey Yan
The Straits Times
Jan 9, 2026
Home-grown actor Adam Chen, 49, has stepped back from the local food and beverage (F&B) industry and may look for a place to retire in his Japanese wife's home town.
He revealed this in an interview with Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao on Jan 7 on the set of upcoming local crime drama No Other Way, in which he plays a police investigator. The show, scheduled to air on Channel 8 in July, will also star Zhang Zetong, Nick Teo and Hong Ling.
Chen left Mediacorp in 2013 and ventured into the F&B industry, where he was involved in concepts like a bar, cafe, yakitori and donburi restaurants.
He has not been active in the entertainment industry in recent years. His last major role was in English-language TV drama Tanglin (2015 to 2018), where he played a stay-at-home dad.
Chen quit the local food industry in 2024, explaining the idea took root after he read a news report that Singaporeans can soon use the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link to travel to Johor Bahru by the end of 2026.
He said: "I believe it will mirror the situations in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, where it will only get tougher (for the F&B industry). I decided to let go (of my business) since this is a factor which I have no control of."
Chen is now helping out at his wife's marketing consulting firm – a small company with about four or five employees. He is mainly responsible for operations and human resources management, while his wife oversees business development.
The couple, who have been married for three years, dated for a decade before tying the knot during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The pandemic brought great instability, and my restaurant business was also facing some risks then," he said of his decision to get hitched. "I felt I needed something more grounded."
At the time, his then-girlfriend was holding an Employment Pass, so he asked her to marry him to provide her with some legal safeguards.
The couple took only three days between making the decision to wed and the marriage itself. The ceremony was kept simple, involving only the necessary registration and vows.
Chen said his wife is still considered single in Japan as they have not gone to her home country to complete the necessary paperwork due to their busy schedules.
"It can't be done at the embassy here, and we have to go to Japan to complete the process," he said. "We plan to fly there in the next one or two months to finish the paperwork."
The couple have no plans to hold a wedding ceremony in Japan, and instead have begun planning for life after retirement. Children are also not in the picture.
"Her career is taking off and the timing is not right," he said. "She is two years younger than me, so having a child at this stage will be a bit late."
