Rebecca's Thoughts

The idea of rent-a-family is self-explanatory, one can rent family members. If someone is looking for a few more wedding guests, or the loving affection of a long passed mother, well they are in luck. There are several companies in Japan that provide services that allow people to hire actors to play the requested role in their lives[1]. What is the exact purpose of the rent-a-family phenomenon? Is it to fill the void of loneliness? Maybe it is used as a vice, allowing for wish fulfillment in the form of the ‘nuclear family?’ Could it be considered a form of therapy; a resource that gives people the things they need to morn, or someone to confide in? One could say that it is all of the above. The reasons that people ‘rent family members’ seems to be different for everyone.

The ie family, originating during the Meiji Restoration, was a top down structure, with the family father head of the family, with the subordinates made up of sons, and their families acting as different branches of the family. This fact all changed after World War 2 with the introduction of the ‘nuclear family’ with the following decades solidifying this new system into society. The New Yorker article explained that in the early 1980’s the first wave of rent-a-family services broke ground. As more people entered the workforce, and the economy boomed, people felt that they no longer had time to visit their families[2]. This gave Satsuki Ōiwa an idea. She started a business in which people could rent relatives to visit them when their real family was too busy. This eventually grew into the phenomenon that it is today, a service that enables people to talk to people like they would their own relatives, allowing them to belong to a group/relationship where they feel loved, and appreciated.

Amae, or the idea of indulgent dependency seems to be one of the driving forces as to why the rent-a-family business is so popular. It comes from the idea that the Japanese seem to be overly reliant on one another, continuously searching for relationships where they are loved, and appreciated. In an article by the BBC, a researcher who studies Japanese psychology stated that “Amae is one way to escape from being an adult for a little while. It can provide an outlet for stress, because even adults need care or attention sometimes.[3]” This type of longing can be seen in the clientele of these companies, and further explained in the reason why they are willing to pay people to eat dinner, or walk through the park with them. In the article from the New Yorker, Kazushige Nishida was one of the people who was interviewed. He is an aging salary man who is a widow and is estranged from his daughter. In the article he talked about how lonely he was, and how he saw rent-a-family as a way to find the human connections that he had previously lost[4].

A major part of Japanese society is that people are often required to ‘act their age,’ and essentially live their lives according to a socially constructed status quo. In the New Yorker article they talked about how these rent-a-family services help mitigate, and sometimes resolve issues that might arise in this kind of society.  Poverty rates among single parent households in Japan is around 56%[5]. Most of these families are single mothers, working in a country that is working against them. The desire for the ‘nuclear family’ is seemingly ingrained in Japanese society, that if these single parent households want to get their children into a good school, they are often at a disadvantage. In the New Yorker article, one of the company owners, Ishii, talked about his career and how his company started through this first job as playing a father in a single mother family. The mother wanted the child to get into a competitive kindergarten[6]. This seems to be a common job that these actors play.  There is also a plethora of fake weddings, filled with paid actors all to appease demanding parents. These companies have found a foot hold in finding loopholes to these societal expectations, and people seem to be taking full advantage of them. 

[1] Elif Batuman, “Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry,” April 23, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry.

[2] Ibid

[3] Amanda Alvarez, “Japan’s Deep Connection to Childish Relationships,” BBC Future (BBC, December 13, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191212-japans-deep-connection-to-childish-relationships.

[4] Elif Batuman, “Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry,” April 23, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry.

[5] Amanda Alvarez, “Japan’s Deep Connection to Childish Relationships,” BBC Future (BBC, December 13, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191212-japans-deep-connection-to-childish-relationships.

[6] Elif Batuman, “Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry,” April 23, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry.