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By Micah McCartney
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The recent film Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser and directed by Hikari, has put a spotlight on a social phenomenon in contemporary Japanese culture: hiring actors to play family members, spouses, friends, or companions for clients seeking connection or maintaining appearances.
Why It Matters
Loneliness has become a widespread concern in Japan, affecting all ages. Many feel socially isolated due to long work hours, cultural pressures, or shrinking social networks. Rental family services offer temporary companionship and social validation for those who lack reliable personal connections.
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Demographic trends compound the issue. Marriages continue to decline, and single‑person households account for more than 34 percent of all households. This trend coincides with a fast-changing demographic landscape in the "super-aged" society, where around 30 percent of the population is 65 or older.
Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare by email with a request for comment.
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What To Know
Rental family services emerged as a cultural force in the 1990s, initially offering stand‑in relatives for weddings and funerals. Today, the industry spans hundreds of companies nationwide, offering roles from spouses to siblings to business associates.
Some agencies maintain pools of hundreds of actors and can customize backstories for events and pose as companions over the long term for returning clients.
Clients often seek temporary social stability or the ability to meet cultural expectations. Services can include attending family events, posing in photographs, or creating a social narrative for work or personal life. Prices range from modest hourly rates to tens of thousands of dollars for elaborate, multi-actor arrangements.
The centrality of social harmony, or minna no tame ni, in Japanese culture discourages emotional openness, observed Miwa Yasui, a professor at the University of Chicago who researches the relationship between mental health and culture, in an interview with the Associated Press.
"Within Asian cultures, there’s a concept of loss of face. If you lose that, that actually has significant implications," Yaui said.
What People Are Saying
Hikari, director of Rental Family, told Nichi Bei News: "People are looking for connection, even though they’re paying for that connection. The film explores how transactional relationships intersect with genuine emotion."
Yuichi Issue, founder of the Family Romance rental company, told Japan Inside in October: “One man wanted a replica of his dead wife—same name, same memories written by him [...] The world is unfair, and my business exists to bring balance."
What Happens Next
The industry is likely to continue growing, with no end in sight to Japan’s demographic and social pressures.
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