Today, I'd like to write about a strange rental service in Japan. Have you ever heard about rental boyfriends or girlfriends? In Japan, you can actually rent people if you want. For example, if you'd like to practice dating before going out with someone for real, you can rent a date. You might need more people for your party, no worries. You can rent them for it. Are you looking for someone to attend a party with you? You can rent a partner too. You can even customize whoever you need and use the service. If you'd like to spend a time with a grandma, you can rent one. You can even rent a whole family.
This rental service became popular even outside of Japan, and the American TV host, Conan O'Brien made a video clip about it when he came to Japan. He rented a whole family. If you are interested in it, you can watch it here. It's really funny. Enjoy it.
You can also watch a video clip of renting boyfriend here, and the girlfriend's version here.
To be honest, I've never heard any of my friends talk about using this service, so I have no idea who actually does.
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Renting people! This sounds quite weird! However, I understand that someone would need to have an experience that they didn't live before.
I remember having read about this (Chinese? Taiwanese, probably, I think) movie--A young man who is studying in the US "rents" a girlfriend when he learns his parents are going to visit him, in order to conceal the fact that he is gay. A comedy, or dramedy lol
It seems it's The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee, 1993), except that he doesn't "rent" her, it's just a mutually beneficial deal they make
@Double-Zee Thank you as always! I agree this is really weird!! But when you type "rental boyfriends", you can hit many websites where you can use the service. Most of them locate in the Tokyo area, though. I think the same way you have written. This service gives great opportunites to costumers who've never experienced these stuff.
@eugen_blick I think you are talking about a documentary movie made in Japan. I've talked about it with a friend from Texas. The location was Tokyo. I also talked about gay guy has hired a woman as a wife. They also exchanged contracts. I think the location was also Tokyo.
Thank you for reading and commenting on my post. Surprisingly, it's been happening in the real world.
Japan is a truly unique place!