Girlfriend and boyfriend "rental" services are one of those "wacky Japan" narrative favorites, though they do actually exist. They are also not as crazy or sleazy as they might sound -- after all, if you want someone to date and then sleep with, there are countless prostitution services or "compensated dating" clubs out there. So what's different about this kind of rental service? What do you get for your money? Asian Boss, the awesome YouTube channel behind interviews with porn stars Emiri Okazaki and Taka Kato, tried out one service to demonstrate what it is like. Host (and handsome ...

For around ¥4,000 an hour you can have a girlfriend or boyfriend. Well, you can have what's nice about having a partner without the physical stuff, at any rate. Rental friends have been around for a while in many places and the ones in Japan have often disproportionately been given space by the foreign media. Obviously they are a fringe service for certain types of people who need extra bods at weddings and so on. How much truth is there in the coverage? Well, the services do exist, that's for sure, and they are often more innocent (and innovative) than you might think. We read an ...