Re:The Booming Japanese Rent-A-Friend Business
by laurieg on Thursday November 09, 2017 @12:09PM
(#15664024)
It is real. It has been featured on several national Japanese TV shows, the site has been maintained since 2012
Another commenter posted that the company is listed as "Established April 1 2009" but that is likely just for financial reasons, as April 1st is the start of the financial year.
That said, while the company is real I don't think it is common or in widespread use. I've never had a conversation about such a company or heard of anyone ever using one in the past few years in Japan. Remember, the media often likes to play up the "Weird Japan" angle.
(Of course, if they were doing their job perfectly then we would never know about it...)
Another commenter posted that the company is listed as "Established April 1 2009" but that is likely just for financial reasons, as April 1st is the start of the financial year.
That said, while the company is real I don't think it is common or in widespread use. I've never had a conversation about such a company or heard of anyone ever using one in the past few years in Japan. Remember, the media often likes to play up the "Weird Japan" angle.
(Of course, if they were doing their job perfectly then we would never know about it...)