The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business • Hacker News Board

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#141

Post by Cerium » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

novia wrote: post #91

krapp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand within that culture an apology must be made, and there's a ritual to apology that has to be observed, but I don't understand why an employer would be willing to put up with the ruse. Is there really no social or cultural stigma involved with paying to have someone else to do it on your behalf?

The implication I believe is that the company is large enough that the boss would not personally know all the employees. The actor is pretending to be an employee that is responsible for the mistake that the hiring party made, but is not pretending to actually BE the person who hired them.

Wonderful side effect: the company can honestly say that they fired them after the incident!

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#142

Post by dbosch » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 5:29 PM UTC

A danish director made a film on the topic: he follows a Rent-A-Friend business boss who hides what he is doing for a living to his own family Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3242460/

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#143

Post by clw8 » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 5:38 PM UTC

z0r wrote: post #130

http://family-romance.com/index.html translated to english, you will find in the page: Establishment: April 1, 2009 the only reason i would consider this real at all is because "Japan", but i can't buy this this must be an (enjoyable) work of fiction

I googled the Japanese name of the company and there are Yahoo Q&A threads about if it's awkward etc. so it is very real.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#144

Post by Jemmeh » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 5:48 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #86

mrSugar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was explored (all the way to its grim dystopian conclusion) in tv series Dollhouse. Might want to check it out.

I only watched the first season, but wasn't it the reverse of the suggestion?

Spoiler alert The dolls aren't the only ones that have their minds tampered with by the end of the show.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#145

Post by zbentley » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:00 PM UTC

I really hope that employees of this company are provided with access to mental health services as one of their benefits. Without judgement one way or the other, in that line of work, you'd need it.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#146

Post by sliverstorm » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC

geofft wrote: post #101

moonka wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I can't help but wonder about the ethical implications of lying to a child about something so fundamental for her entire lifetime.

We generally think it's ethically acceptable not to tell a child that they were adopted for a long while (possibly into adulthood), or not to tell a child that their biological father wasn't their mother's husband. We also find it ethically acceptable for a couple not to ask who fathered their own child. We also generally find it ethically acceptable to form and especially continue relationships based on factors othe…

We also find it ethically acceptable for a couple not to ask who fathered their own child

Wait, we do? Social issues aside, what about family medical history!?

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#147

Post by dragontamer » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:14 PM UTC

Pharylon wrote: post #54

sho wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article specifically mentions the positive outcome of the arrangement - the young woman's confidence has improved, destructive behaviour stopped, bullying stopped, and she has the father figure she obviously needs at this critical part of her development. And from all appearances he is genuinely doing his best to be that. It's very hard for me to condemn this when the outcome seems so inarguably positive. Truthfu…

It seems positive from what he says, but we only have one side of the story. How does the daughter feel about having a father she sees so infrequently? Is it hard on her? Does she wonder why he won't come help her when she calls him out of the blue over some emergency? Now that she's older, would it be easier for her to know the truth? We don't know. What I do know is eventually she'll find out, somehow. What happens…

Her real father left.

So the real question is: is the 4-hours a week of fake fatherhood better than being a bullied, emotionally traumatized kid throughout some of the hardest moments of growing up?

Its a fake, rent-a-father for 4 hours a week. But that fake fatherhood is probably way better than no fatherhood at all.

Its a difficult moral question for sure.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#148

Post by emidln » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:15 PM UTC

donquichotte wrote: post #16

hkmurakami wrote: post #2

Went into reading this article expecting it to be a one-off, rental boyfriend type deal (that kind of trope is used very frequently in movies/tv shows/manga there), but this way way deeper than I expected. I'm pretty mind blown at how far they are taking this fake/real replacements. Pretty close to some dystopian scifi actually. >If the client never reveals the truth, I must continue the role indefinitely. If the dau…

The TV Series "Dollhouse" also explores this, although there the actors can only be rented on a day-to-day basis and their memory is wiped (OR IS IT?) after every assignment.

Gibson's Neuromancer touches on this with the backstory for how Molly Millions paid for her cybernetic enhancements as a "meat puppet".

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#149

Post by callesgg » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:15 PM UTC

jprissi wrote: post #138

callesgg wrote: post #72

Sounds like the mind of psychopaths.

Obviously not, he's just pragmatic.

He is building up a lie that if unleashed could destroy a person. If not the person, defensively the relationship between the kid and the mom that hired him.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#150

Post by philsnow » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 6:20 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #49

hkmurakami wrote: post #2

Went into reading this article expecting it to be a one-off, rental boyfriend type deal (that kind of trope is used very frequently in movies/tv shows/manga there), but this way way deeper than I expected. I'm pretty mind blown at how far they are taking this fake/real replacements. Pretty close to some dystopian scifi actually. >If the client never reveals the truth, I must continue the role indefinitely. If the dau…

Now imagine a future technology where you could undergo some hypnosis / gaslighting treatment to forget you even hired this person. I.e. pay a lot of money in advance, it's invested and the actor gets paid from the interest. You undergo memory treatment, and now your mother who you see once a week is real as far as you know, but really she's an actor you hired years back because your actual mother died.

Without going into too much detail, Oldboy [0] has a bit that reminds me of this.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy_(2003_film) , I haven't seen the 2013 remake