The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business
&gt; There was one case of a man in his 60s. His wife died, and he wanted to order another copy of her. We provided that.<p>This was incredibly poignant to me.<p>Japanese society can be incredibly restrictive in its social circles; it&#x27;s too simple for me to imagine a guy in his 60s with few friends, few opportunities to make more friends, and then his only friend and long-time partner dies. It&#x27;s too easy to imagine how lost and desperate he might be, why he might want this kind of service to create a fake reality to live in.<p>Some people might read this and think &quot;wow, twisted that people can sell this kind of thing in Japan,&quot; but as someone who&#x27;s lived here for a while, I think &quot;wow, twisted that Japanese society forces people to feel like they need this kind of thing.&quot;<p>I struggle to find any kind of up side to the fact that society enables this kind of service, or rather, that this kind of service is even made necessary. Does anyone else see one?<p>Edit: To go into a bit more detail, my problems with society enabling this kind of service are really:<p>1. Social expectations and pressure<p>2. Lack of mental health care&#x2F;counseling&#x2F;options and awareness