Do you want to appear surrounded by friends so you look popular on the social media but don’t have enough of them? Or perhaps you can’t seem to find a boyfriend or girlfriend while all your friends have them and you seriously miss a date for a special occasion?
A Japanese business called Family Romance, which describes itself as Surrogate Attendance Service, offers à la carte human relationships to solve relationship problems of those in Japan. The company offers everything from fake wedding dates, fake boyfriends to bring home, fake colleagues for conferences, and even fake newborn grandchildren for a dying grandparent. You can always choose the age, appearance and fashion sense of these rented friends and family members.
The company, founded by a man called Ishii Yuichi, has at least 800 employee-actors to fulfill every role imaginable. The website www.family-romance.com has a listing of the kinds of services available. You could hire wedding guests and friends for 10,000 yen each to have a mix of staff and guests of both genders. You could have among them corporate officials, relatives and even rented parents. The company promises to send the right people taking into consideration your social and financial status. You can use just a handful or even hundreds of people to appear popular. There will even be affectionate speeches and entertainment provided.
While parents, on private visits, would cost 2,000 yen per person, rented friends would be available for 12,000 yen each. If you have shifted to another city and don’t have enough friends, you can keep away from loneliness by hiring these friends. They will be fun, friendly and encouraging. You could even get these friends on hire to give you likes on the social media at a certain fee. In a 2017 interview to www.theatlantic.com, Ishii Yuichi explains that prices can vary based on the role the actor will fill, and for how long. He also says that he feels fulfilled by just feeling needed. He also predicts the exponential growth of his business and others like it.
The business seems to tap into our emotional need for companionship and friendship. “I want to improve people’s lives,” says Yuichi on the website. While some might feel that this is a terrifying reflection of the world we live in, others, especially those who struggle to be socially connected, appear to have found a solution that will ensure them better emotional wellness, especially during important occasions of their lives. It might even help them break through their social inhibitions and some day find real friends.