Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#21

Post by captain_perl » Thu, May 10, 2018, 1:52 AM UTC

irtefa wrote: post #13

oceanman888 wrote: post #12

I have always been seeing this as a solid need especially in Japan. I know several people in japan who recently divorced that experience loneliness, they would host dinners and meet-ups like every week or so. Plus young people are dating less and less here, Plus Plus there are a lot of socially awkward people who will have a hard time trying to build a family.

"Plus young people are dating less and less here" - I keep seeing this a lot. Why are people dating less and less?

Largely because career women can afford their own condo and trip to Hawaii now.

After they get married, typically women lose their job and end up as a bitter homemaker waiting around for their drunk husband to arrive on the last train.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#22

Post by stcredzero » Thu, May 10, 2018, 1:53 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

This is a repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16927649 from two weeks ago. So in that vein, here's my comment on that one: Getting a little tired of these showing up. Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Japan." But no, they're not anywhere NEAR mainstream. I think using the word "industry" really makes the reader think it is and imagine a huge, dysfunctional so…

You don't have to imagine. Just look at the coverage of dog eating in Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat_consumption_in_South_...

Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Korea." However, this practice is sharply declining in the younger generations.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#23

Post by stcredzero » Thu, May 10, 2018, 1:59 AM UTC

jasonszhao wrote: post #7

> “She was acting as a rental daughter, but at the same time she was telling me how she felt as a real daughter,” he said. “And yet, if it was a real father-daughter relationship, maybe she wouldn’t have spoken this honestly.” ... Yūichi Ishii, the founder of Family Romance, told me that he and his “cast” actively strategize in order to engineer outcomes like Nishida’s, in which the rental family makes itself redunda…

If truth be told, the ersatz family, in some form or another, has been an important function in society since time immemorial. We're just not always honest with ourselves about it, and it's much easier to see it and comment about it from the distance of another culture.

I am reminded of the sad story from this Dar Williams song, where young partiers and the stock photos from picture frames serve this function for a Peter Pan syndrome man.

https://g.co/kgs/oM3hCR

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#24

Post by lhorie » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:07 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

This is a repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16927649 from two weeks ago. So in that vein, here's my comment on that one: Getting a little tired of these showing up. Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Japan." But no, they're not anywhere NEAR mainstream. I think using the word "industry" really makes the reader think it is and imagine a huge, dysfunctional so…

Do people really think this kind of thing is common? I mean, this is the first time I saw this article and I like learning about weird subcultures as much as the next person, but I tend to go in with the understanding that it made into an article precisely because it's obscure.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#25

Post by w00kie » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:22 AM UTC

psychdarch07 wrote: post #20

Every culture has their own "weirdness". It might seem weird to some us, but hey, who are we to tell them how to cope up with their lives if we can't even fix our own.

Don't worry, it's very weird in Japan too.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#26

Post by sdrothrock » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:23 AM UTC

lhorie wrote: post #24

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

This is a repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16927649 from two weeks ago. So in that vein, here's my comment on that one: Getting a little tired of these showing up. Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Japan." But no, they're not anywhere NEAR mainstream. I think using the word "industry" really makes the reader think it is and imagine a huge, dysfunctional so…

Do people really think this kind of thing is common? I mean, this is the first time I saw this article and I like learning about weird subcultures as much as the next person, but I tend to go in with the understanding that it made into an article precisely because it's obscure.

> Do people really think this kind of thing is common?

I think the use of the word "industry" is my main problem with it. An industry sounds big, like it has multiple companies and tons of customers.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#27

Post by mc32 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:32 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

This is a repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16927649 from two weeks ago. So in that vein, here's my comment on that one: Getting a little tired of these showing up. Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Japan." But no, they're not anywhere NEAR mainstream. I think using the word "industry" really makes the reader think it is and imagine a huge, dysfunctional so…

I think "industry" is a fine term. Lots of things that are relatively low diffusion are "industry".

Take:

Artificial limbs.

Antique fashion.

Independent supercars.

S&M goods.

Fake furniture props for selling houses.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#28

Post by nevatiaritika » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:36 AM UTC

I cannot help but get irked at the pity-projections that the western media has on Japan.

The structure of the article itself is made to sound how the war has damaged the social aspects of Japan - and how the numbers prove so. It starts with the story of a person using these services, till a point you realize the satire. Then the downfalls of such services while gracefully pushing in some irrelevant history.

In reality, showing this article to any average Japanese person in Japan, they would feel this is absurd. No such industry exists, there are a couple of weird companies popping up everywhere across the globe. Heard about the fake social media pictures company in the USA?

These articles need to stop! Every publication is increasingly posting these uncanny ideas about how strange this country is, too much western obsession.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#29

Post by the_dave_santos » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:37 AM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #10

What a sad world we live in where there are people who need this sort of thing. The worst part is, I get it.

Totally, at first I thought it's weird also but after reading Kazushige Nishida's story, it's understandable. I may use this service if I were in his shoes.

Re: Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry

#30

Post by jpatokal » Thu, May 10, 2018, 4:19 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #27

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

This is a repost of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16927649 from two weeks ago. So in that vein, here's my comment on that one: Getting a little tired of these showing up. Yes, these services exist, yes some people use them, and yes, it's totally "weird Japan." But no, they're not anywhere NEAR mainstream. I think using the word "industry" really makes the reader think it is and imagine a huge, dysfunctional so…

I think "industry" is a fine term. Lots of things that are relatively low diffusion are "industry". Take: Artificial limbs. Antique fashion. Independent supercars. S&M goods. Fake furniture props for selling houses.

I'm pretty sure each and every one* of those industries is several orders of magnitude larger than the industry for fake families. For example, there are 2 million people in the US alone with artificial limbs.

* ..except maybe independent supercars, and even then only if counting units sold and not dollars invested.