> Pretty close to some dystopian scifi actually. But it's not really that surprising, as much as I love Japan, the way they've commoditized casual social inter

> Pretty close to some dystopian scifi actually. But it's not really that surprising, as much as I love Japan, the way they've commoditized casual social interactions has always been downright scary to me. Hostess club culture might be the most obvious example, but it's only the most well known atop a whole mountain of service industry which revolves around people paying for casual social interactions, which imho belong among basic human needs. The notoriously strict Japanese social hierarchy probably played a part in the widespread establishment of such practices: Can't show any weakness among social peers, so people rather isolate themselves and even keep their casual social interactions on a "professional level". This also removes the need to keep up with peer pressure in a very dense and very socially competitive environment, just outsource all the venting to a service worker. I fear in a not so far-flung future this will become more common outside of Japan because high population density probably also played a role in the establishment of these strict social hierarchies and all their resulting woes.