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The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#201

Post by jhiska »

The story seems fake.

Does anyone have a link to this "Family Romance" corporation? Where is the proof?

Why would the guy be so ruthlessly candid about his immoral failings? Why does he talk in a carefully manicured, but cruel and amoral way -- why is he dissing his own product? Why would he plaster his face on The Atlantic when he depends on anonymity? They have 800 employees -- that's large; why haven't we heard of this before? Why is he so knowledgeable about what English-speakers don't know about Japan and so able to help us understand -- has he lived and studied extensively abroad? Why is he able to understand what he does is immoral but is unwilling to change even as it affects him so deeply -- why doesn't he get a new job? What would happen to his clients if he decided to stop working for them -- how legally binding would his contract be? Is he legally obligated to keep lying even if he changes his job -- that's impossible, right? No one is legally obligated to lie. Is the business really "booming" when it seems to be so unknown -- and, in fact, relies on keeping a low-profile for maximum effectiveness? How did the clients find them -- and how did everyone else not find them?

Where are other, reliable articles about this? The only other source I find is The Sun and people have mentioned Yahoo! Answers, which aren't reliable sources. Can someone in Japan confirm this?

It screams of fictional writing.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#202

Post by Veratyr »

bjourne wrote: post #195
_aldr wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Her mother is a lazy, dishonest bitch who bought a fake father rather than finding a real one for her daughter. Japan is full of single men so it's not like that option wasn't available to her. I think that's harsh and short sighted. Why is marrying a single man better for her daughter? How is that more "real"? It's certainly not true in all cases. If her mother remarried to an abusive alcoholic do you seriously th…

I'm 100% sure the daughter would have preferred the abusive alcoholic over being tricked like this. If you don't understand that, then you have a lot to learn about Homo sapiens.

Really? Do you think that an adopted child would prefer their birth parents over their loving adoptive parents if their birth parents were abusive alcoholics, criminals or drug addicts?

Children who have been adopted are also "tricked" but I don't think all of them prefer their birth families.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#203

Post by logfromblammo »

ugfgibcvg wrote: post #156
grkvlt wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do that sort of thing already - see Santa Claus for example, where children are continually lied to about the identity of the person who brings them presents.

Children are not stupid. They know.

And yet grown-ass adults can believe that an alien overlord flew their souls to Earth millions of years ago in space-faring DC-10s and blew them up in volcanoes, or that you can baptize the idea of a person long after they have died, or that the strongest wolf is held down by chains made by dwarves from widows' sighs and morning mist, or that the Earth is flat, or that putting money in a brass dish will spread your values around the world.

Smart children know. Very smart children hide it from you, so the loot keeps coming. Children that are too smart for their own good denounce all the cargo-culting rituals, introduce a cleaner, less obfuscated, and more efficient process, and end up getting socks, underwear, and mechanical pencils.

But obviously some kids never figure out the tricks, even long after they are grown. I am thankful that if I did have a kid that thick, I could hire a Japanese man at $50/hour for the express purpose of spoiling it for them and telling them to grow up, even as I insisted that yes, kid, there really is a Santa Claus. I guess you never know for sure that they are on board with the program until you're a grandparent.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#204

Post by logfromblammo »

Bjartr wrote: post #166
batushka wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a 1.9m blond bloke find a role or would be considered too foreign? Few gigs would help with travel budget.

Very possibly the opposite! Companies will hire westerners to pose (like, literally stand and smile and nothing else) as C-level execs because having foreign execs correlates with a successful international business and thus looks good to potential partners and the like.

I thought that was more common in mainland China than in Japan. Rent-a-gweilo executive impersonation services.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#206

Post by HHest »

jhiska wrote: post #201

The story seems fake. Does anyone have a link to this "Family Romance" corporation? Where is the proof? Why would the guy be so ruthlessly candid about his immoral failings? Why does he talk in a carefully manicured, but cruel and amoral way -- why is he dissing his own product? Why would he plaster his face on The Atlantic when he depends on anonymity? They have 800 employees -- that's large; why haven't we heard of…

Link is provided in the article. Am also surprised that the actor allowed his photo to appear. In fact, the website, which is in Japanese, has many photos. I wonder if they are of employees who work there. That would seem counterproductive.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#207

Post by uremog »

jhiska wrote: post #201

The story seems fake. Does anyone have a link to this "Family Romance" corporation? Where is the proof? Why would the guy be so ruthlessly candid about his immoral failings? Why does he talk in a carefully manicured, but cruel and amoral way -- why is he dissing his own product? Why would he plaster his face on The Atlantic when he depends on anonymity? They have 800 employees -- that's large; why haven't we heard of…

http://family-romance.com/

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#208

Post by malloryerik »

thatcat wrote: post #57
avar wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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 Sounds like a sort of reverse Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; things could get really awkward and confusing when you end up having partial memories. But also, possibly a brilliant way to fund nursing homes/increase visitation.

Yes, I was thinking that this should be a Charlie Kaufman movie, or that it's like a Charlie Kaufman movie come to life.

And it's like the opposite of Darth Vader. "Luke, I'm not you true father, I'm a member of the Family Romance corporation."

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#209

Post by wingworks »

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.

Sounds very similar to what the Dollhouse TV series was about.

Re: The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business

#210

Post by uremog »

laurieg wrote: post #137
stickfigure wrote: post #14

Can someone confirm that this is real? It reads like (dismal) satire.

It is real. It has been featured on several national Japanese TV shows, the site has been maintained since 2012 Another commenter posted that the company is listed as "Established April 1 2009" but that is likely just for financial reasons, as April 1st is the start of the financial year. That said, while the company is real I don't think it is common or in widespread use. I've never had a conversation about such a c…

They do have to get clients somehow.
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