Rent A Friend/Girlfriend, Satisfy Your Heart – Meal and Conversation…
There are shops I want to go to, but it’s discouraging to go alone. I want to talk to someone, but I don’t have a companion. Hoping to fill in the gaps in the hearts of people like that, a service called “Rental Friend” was born.
■ Over 40,000 Yen for 11 Hours
On September 8, all of Japan was excited about the Tokyo Olympics decision.
A man heads toward Tokyo by car from his home in northern Kanto. He is 35 years old and unmarried. His monthly “modest amusement” begins.
11 a.m. in front of a Western clothes shop. The appointment is always at this place and this time. He picks up the girl waiting there and heads toward Akihabara.
The girl, who knew that he likes professional wrestling, looks for a shop, and together they browse the masks and T-shirts. He’s shy and doesn’t call her by her name. Nevertheless, he speaks about his personal worries:
“My mother says she’s been hospitalized.”
”Oh, really? You must be worried.”
Lunch is curry. They tour the shops, and as they leave an art gallery at the end, it’s pouring rain. He holds an umbrella to keep the girl from getting wet.
At 7 pm, it’s time to part ways. He hands her the 31,000 yen from his wallet, and starts on his way back home.
This girl is a “Rental Friend.” She’s one member of the staff of “female-only handymen,” with a base of “client partners” focused on Eastern Japan.
It was last spring that the man called this company. He began to talk about his breakup with his girlfriend two years before. He had persisted with repeated phone calls and visits to her house. He even got a warning from the police. “At this rate, we’ll arrest you.” During this time of time of trouble, he heard about the company on TV.
”I started using the service, and I changed. I played billiards and darts for the first time, and played catch in the park. I was thinking about my ex-girlfriend less.”
He wakes up at 6 in the morning and works with machines in a factory. He returns home around 8 pm, and just goes to sleep. He has weak social skills, and can’t drink alcohol. Into that daily life, a transformation was born.
When he toured the sight-seeing areas of Yokohama, she was by his side for 11 hours. The payment was over 40,000 yen.
At first, he was opposed to the idea of paying someone to be his companion. “But when we go all these places together and she listens to my worries, I can forget the disagreeable parts. I’ve begun to think that this is good.” He says that at work he’s starting to be told, “You aren’t getting angry anymore these days.”
Loneliness and alienation among young people is an ongoing social problem in Japan.
Source : JapanCrush.com, Yahoo Japan
Japan Addict INA 