Even a person’s love for their family may be purchased in modern-day Japan, which has become a sparkling market for every goods imaginable. At the very least, rent it. Actors willing to take on roles within families might be hired through Rental Family Services in Japan.
Oddly, would you ever consider paying a complete stranger to take the role to be your spouse or parent? The solution to avoiding uncomfortable social circumstances for some people in Japan is to live with a rental family. It is a widespread misunderstanding that the only people who benefit from these services are those who are socially isolated, lonely people who struggle with true family relationships. In point of fact, a significant portion of the people who use rent-a-family services are lone persons who do not have any close friends or relatives. Stand-ins, on the other hand, are rented by persons of different ages, genders, and social class for a variety of purposes.
Sounds familiar? Even on anime, it’s a common phenomena like SPY X FAMILY, Summer Wars, Rent A Girlfriend.
In Japan, renting out members of one’s own family might turn out to be rather profitable, particularly in situations when the rented family member will be caring for the renter’s child for an extended period of time. In the extremely unlikely event that the actor or renter develops unhealthy levels of attachment, the firm reserves the right to end the relationship earlier than expected.
Japan Efficiency Corp., based in Tokyo, runs a successful firm that involves renting families to those who are alone. In addition to this, it provides personal assistants to recognition-starved homemakers, sympathetic ears to stressed-out executives, and even individuals to chastise for those who are itching to tell someone off but can’t due to the culture of restraint. Certain customers require the presence of a member of their family or another guest at social events like ceremonies and picnics. Others pay the actors to be their “friends” so that they can attend events or take vacations with them. Some people just want to “test out” what it might be like to have a spouse, a family, or siblings without actually committing to such relationships.
People turn to the service for a wide variety of reasons because they place a high value on maintaining their face in a society where this value is highly regarded. They might pay a set of parents to attend their weddings, or they might pay a mother to attend an interview for school entrance. Occasionally, the motivation is something more personal, such as admitting something to a rented parent in order to get closure on it. To some, it’s emotional; loneliness. Even though the practice of renting a family is more popular in Japan, the phenomena of loneliness is not. Loneliness is an overwhelming feeling that can take its toll. Is it possible that rental family member services could be the answer to the problem of loneliness in Japan and even in Asia, or are these services merely a quick band-aid that provides brief solace for a pain that runs deep?
References:
RENT-A-SISTER IN JAPAN: GETTING TO KNOW HIKIKOMORI
Playing House: the Rent-a-Family business in Japan
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