Japan's rent-a-friend business is booming
In Japan, if you need a best man for your wedding or a fake uncle or a bogus boss, Ryuichi Ichinokawa is the man to call, The Guardian reports.
Ichinokawa started his rent-a-friend business almost four years ago and now has 30 agents who can pretend to be a relative, boyfriend, spouse, or best friend. It is one of about 10 such agencies in Japan.
The paper says the growing service sector provides stand-ins "to spare their clients' blushes at social functions such as weddings and funerals."
This weekend, Ichinokawa -- who is skilled at giving toasts as faux best man -- played the role of uncle of a 12-year-old boy and his younger sister at a school sports day. The reason: their mother is divorced and the kids have been getting bullied at school about their absent father.
The Guardian calls the rise of the phony friend business "a symptom of social and economic changes, combined with a deep-seated cultural aversion to giving personal and professional problems a public airing."
Ichinokawa, who charges $150 for a wedding appearance (or more if he has to speak or sing karaoke), says his work is gratifying, but the preparation can be exhausting.
He says he has to be able to answer every possible question about his "friend" or "relative" to avoid an embarrassment that could ruin a client's reputation. But, Ichinokawa tells the paper, "in three and a half years I've never once been caught out."
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