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Fake Family for Hire: Japan's Loneliness Solution?
21 Nov
Summary
- Rental families offer paid actors as stand-ins for family and friends.
- The service helps combat loneliness and maintain social appearances.
- The 'Rental Family' movie highlights this unique Japanese industry.
Ryuichi Ichinokawa founded the Heart Project in Japan nearly two decades ago, offering a "surrogate attendance service" that provides hired actors as family members and friends. This business caters to individuals experiencing loneliness or societal pressure to maintain specific appearances, offering a paid form of companionship.
These rental roles can range from simple attendance at events to more complex scenarios like posing as a boyfriend or a stand-in husband. While users report finding comfort and healing in these arrangements, the work for the actors can be stressful, requiring them to maintain fabricated identities and backstories.
The unique industry is being brought to wider attention by the film "Rental Family." The movie's director researched hundreds of such companies, finding that the demand for human connection through these services is likely to continue and potentially expand, even alongside AI companions.
