The Japanese, especially the youth, do not only feel “lonely” in real life; even on social media, where they can connect with the whole world, they still feel lonely.
In recent years, a service has been booming in Japan for anyone wanting to impress on social media: “Fake Friend Rentals.”
According to the Japan Times, the demand for renting fake friends on social media platforms is increasing sharply. A notable name in recent times is Family Romance, a company that offers virtual living services and ensures your social media accounts will be livelier than ever.
Among them, the most commonly used service package from Family Romance is called “Real Appeal.”
Specifically, this package focuses on enhancing the social media presence of the clients. Once payment is successfully made, a group of “fake friends” consisting of attractive men and women will appear in the client’s social media photos.
Hardly anyone would recognize those friends as fake, unless someone else also hired the same people for photos.
According to the Japanese news site Japan Informer, there is no limit to the number of fake friends; you can rent as many as you want as long as you have the money.
It is known that the starting cost for this service is 8000 yen (approximately 1.7 million VND), excluding travel and accommodation costs. In addition, clients can freely choose the age, gender, and many other factors of the fake friends.
Besides the Real Appeal package, clients can also rent “fake parents” for 20,000 yen/person (approximately 4.3 million VND).
According to Maki Abe, the manager of Family Romance: Last year, her company handled over 20 requests for “fake friend” rentals. For example, she once staged a party with 100% of the guests being “fake” females for a lonely but wealthy man.