ALBAWABA- Rental family service is a professional service that provides its clients with actors who portray family members, friends, co-workers for weddings, girlfriend/boyfriend, and even a Wife/Husband!
The Service was first made available to Japan in the early 1990s by a firm known as Japan Efficiency Corporation (Nihon Kokasei Honbu).
People who typically request this service are lonely, have trouble making friends, save face in front of others due to a toxic family member, or have someone to hang out with when bored.
YouTubers like Asian Boss and talk show host Conan O'Brien are making videos about it and sharing their experience with the internet.
In this Team Coco video, Conan rented a whole Japanese family consisting of a wife, a father, and a daughter. They spent time together shopping, eating, and roaming Tokyo.
He asked for the maximum amount of time that he would be able to rent the family. The man told him for three years!
How much does the service cost?
According to Medium, for an average of 20,000 yen (around $190), you can rent a family member. Additionally, you can ask for a family member with a specific age, accent, appearance, or attitude, as well as take on a specific fashion trend.
The Washington Independent also said that a company by the name of Client Partners is known as a detective agency but also allows its clients to rent a friend. For 11 hours of rent, you can have the person for $800 depending on the situation.
Support One which is another company in the same industry is managed by a woman, so women feel more secure working there. The rent costs 5000 Yen per hour (around $35).
You could also rent a person to do nothing
Shoji Morimoto's full-time job is to offer himself for rent to do nothing, He is a 37-year-old male who lives in Tokyo and has been doing this full-time since 2018.
People hire this man just to meet up with him and hang out. He takes requests from clients through his Twitter Account and that currently has 400,000 followers while his bio reads "I will lend you a person (me) who does nothing".
Morimoto has taken around 3,000 requests from clients and each of his sessions could cost you 10,000 Yen ($96) for two to three hours including transportation and food fees.
