8 ms·

Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japan’s young men out of their rooms [video]

79 points by tartoran 8y ago

personlurking 8y ago
Also interesting: "Substitutes: Japanese men woo silicone sex dolls to overcome loneliness" [RT, 26 min, 2018] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbTrusgsqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbTrusgsqA
- no1youknowz 8y ago
  People have a tendency to laugh and ridicule these things. But there is a growing trend of single males in Asia. For China [0]: > in a country with 34 million more men than women... For India [1]: > has an excess of 37 million males... The mind absolutely boggles at this combined amount. Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say. Remember the first mobile phone or remember the first car? Primitive to say the least. Now look at what they can do. I would wager we are 25-50 years away from deus ex machina bots. I hope to see it in my lifetime. [0]: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/leftover-men-china-get-married-gender-imbalance-one-child-policy-10485358 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/leftover-men... [1]: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2142658/too-many-men-china-and-india-battle-consequences https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/arti...
  - ummonk 8y ago
    You'd think that with an even bigger gender imbalance and a thriving tech industry, Silicon Valley would be leading the charge... I guess that's why we have VR though.
    - gedy 8y ago
      There's a good amount of feminists who are absolutely against fembots and sex dolls, so I doubt SV/SF will ever lead the way here.
      - asdkhadsj 8y ago
        Why I wonder?
        coldtea 8y ago
        Because if a man is fine with "fembots and sex dolls" and foregoes women, then that means that they think women's only use would be as fembots and sex dolls.
        drblast 8y ago
        Feminists must really hate gay men.
        coldtea 8y ago
        Historically some did (e.g. you could be an early feminist and still consider gays or even lesbians immoral), but in general gay men were acknowledged as themselves oppressed and besides they do their own thing (e.g. gay men wouldn't be in a relationship with a female in the first place). Whereas in the situation with heterosexuals and fembots, the feminine side is still present -- just replicated and reduced to sexual functions. .
      - avatar33 8y ago
        If you can figure out which way will be seen to be against men, then SV can be reliably relied upon to do anything. 90% of SV will sell their own mother for a progressive enough cause. The levels of self hatred was out of this world.
      - putoutorgetout 8y ago
        But what an empty threat! What are feminists even going to do? Give sex doll afficionados the cold shoulder? It’s not like any feminist is ever going step in and occupy the void a sex bot fills. They’re the ones digging the hole. This is obviously a case where not being part of the solution is indeed being part of the problem, and laughably so.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      SV has inherited and most operate within the US cultural puritanism though...
    - mac01021 8y ago
      Nothing stops us from dating or marrying outside of the "tech industry".
  - personlurking 8y ago
    Re: China "Millions of single Chinese men desperately seeking a wife" [France 24 English, 26 min, 2017] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboNzluN6Nc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboNzluN6Nc I caught both this report and the one in my parent comment around the same time. The Chinese solution looks to be divided between sex dolls and importing women (though leaning more towards the latter) while the Japanese solution is about sex dolls and rent-a-families (possibly leaning towards the former).
  - k__ 8y ago
    Now I feel a bit bad for having three girlfriends :/
hkai 8y ago
I'm sure our kids will laugh at this and will spend much less times on their phones or in their rooms than we did.
- sunseb 8y ago
  https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore/ https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore...
onetimemanytime 8y ago
Is this the future of every society?
- tathougies 8y ago
  No. Religious societies that ascribe to traditional values will dominate, as they have in the past, and likely always will. Societies that subscribe to regressive norms will eventually die out, as we're seeing in Japan and Europe.
  - vinay427 8y ago
    What do you mean by dying out? Can you provide an explanation and/or sources for societies in Europe that you believe are dying out?
    - deogeo 8y ago
      Probably referring to below-replacement birth-rates.
    - sunseb 8y ago
      People do less and less chilidren in the western world, and Africa's population to double to 2.4 billion by 2050. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10305000/Africas-population-to-double-to-2.4-billion-by-2050.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianoc...
      - jeena 8y ago
        I don't think there is a single country which fertility rate went up since the 60ies, not even in Africa: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN
        sunseb 8y ago
        https://www.passblue.com/2016/03/01/egypts-fertility-rate-turns-upward-but-why/ https://www.passblue.com/2016/03/01/egypts-fertility-rate-tu...
lai 8y ago
Also look up family rental service.
- guessmyname 8y ago
  Asian Boss made a video some time ago about it [1]. Conan also made one, a bit more on the humorous side [2]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhYMirs7fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhYMirs7fk [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaXw2ztCqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaXw2ztCqU
nwellinghoff 8y ago
Yep turns out all you need is a friend. This is a draw back and advantage of city life. if you want to be isolated, you can
- 8ytecoder 8y ago
  Rural and sub urban areas can be way more isolating. I don't think it's a city phenomenon.
  - corobo 8y ago
    Speaking only from my own experience I'd have to disagree, to isolate yourself in a rural area you have to become the weird person with the curtains closed 24/7 that people talk about In a city you simply cease to exist if you don't leave your apartment
    - code_duck 8y ago
      Some rural areas are so isolated, or neighbors so unconnected, that nobody is talking about you or even aware of you. There may not even be anyone near who would be a candidate to discuss you. For example, my friends who live in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. They moved from the Midwest and rented a 60 acre plot. They have yet to meet any of their neighbors after about 10 months. They’ve vaguely gotten to know people who work at the hardware or grocery stores, but these people don’t think about them outside of work. Since default is to stay at home and have no contact with anyone, they’d have to go out of their way to have social contact with people in the town. This is not nearly as remote as some areas I know, either. And even more remote areas, if your neighbors talked about you at all, it might just be like “oh yeah, there’s some guy that lives down by 45 with the truck” and they keep you in mind in case they have an emergency.
alecco 8y ago
How about addressing the cause instead of focusing on the cure? After WWII they adopted a view of masculinity as toxic. And women have a big part on this phenomenon. > In a 2011 poll of Japanese boys aged between 16 and 19, 36% said they were not interested in having sex; > the figure for girls in the same age group was at 59%. https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/01/13/no-sex-please-were-young-japanese-men/ https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/01/13/no-sex-please...
- dragant 8y ago
  I don't see your point. How did you link toxic masculinity, not wanting sex, and coaxing men out of the room?
- magic_beans 8y ago
  > After WWII they adopted a view of masculinity as toxic. And women have a big part on this phenomenon. You have no source for this at all. Don't blame Japanese women for Japanese men's lack of sexual desire. It seems Japanese women WANT to have sex. So... the problem is obviously not women.
  - YorkshireSeason 8y ago
    > You have no source for this at all. Have you got credible sources for your crazy misandry, and crazy generalisations about JP men, women?
  - commandlinefan 8y ago
    Well, not OP, but I can’t help but notice that women complain, a LOT, about male attention. Young men can be forgiven for taking that to mean that they just don’t want any of it.
- tartoran 8y ago
  I don't think that's the case here. The Japanese are tough on the weak, and make it hard to adopt to the society. Kids are bullied if they don't conform to the norm. This is not dealt with in Japan or hasn't been too much except for the few NGOs doing a good job. And it seems that their approach works.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
the_af 8y ago
I wonder how different this is from therapeutic companions [1], once you strip it from its "something weird that happens in Asia" trappings. A companion is sometimes used in Western countries for people who have mental disorders or difficulties (sometimes very serious, like Schizophrenia), sometimes as an alternative to internment. They are often very expensive, unfortunately. These "rental sisters" don't look bizarre when looked through this lens. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6741585 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6741585

79 points by tartoran 8y ago

Also interesting: "Substitutes: Japanese men woo silicone sex dolls to overcome loneliness" [RT, 26 min, 2018] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbTrusgsqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbTrusgsqA

no1youknowz 8y ago
People have a tendency to laugh and ridicule these things. But there is a growing trend of single males in Asia. For China [0]: > in a country with 34 million more men than women... For India [1]: > has an excess of 37 million males... The mind absolutely boggles at this combined amount. Necessity is the mother of all invention as they say. Remember the first mobile phone or remember the first car? Primitive to say the least. Now look at what they can do. I would wager we are 25-50 years away from deus ex machina bots. I hope to see it in my lifetime. [0]: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/leftover-men-china-get-married-gender-imbalance-one-child-policy-10485358 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/leftover-men... [1]: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2142658/too-many-men-china-and-india-battle-consequences https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/arti...
- ummonk 8y ago
  You'd think that with an even bigger gender imbalance and a thriving tech industry, Silicon Valley would be leading the charge... I guess that's why we have VR though.
  - gedy 8y ago
    There's a good amount of feminists who are absolutely against fembots and sex dolls, so I doubt SV/SF will ever lead the way here.
    - asdkhadsj 8y ago
      Why I wonder?
      - coldtea 8y ago
        Because if a man is fine with "fembots and sex dolls" and foregoes women, then that means that they think women's only use would be as fembots and sex dolls.
        drblast 8y ago
        Feminists must really hate gay men.
        coldtea 8y ago
        Historically some did (e.g. you could be an early feminist and still consider gays or even lesbians immoral), but in general gay men were acknowledged as themselves oppressed and besides they do their own thing (e.g. gay men wouldn't be in a relationship with a female in the first place). Whereas in the situation with heterosexuals and fembots, the feminine side is still present -- just replicated and reduced to sexual functions. .
    - avatar33 8y ago
      If you can figure out which way will be seen to be against men, then SV can be reliably relied upon to do anything. 90% of SV will sell their own mother for a progressive enough cause. The levels of self hatred was out of this world.
    - putoutorgetout 8y ago
      But what an empty threat! What are feminists even going to do? Give sex doll afficionados the cold shoulder? It’s not like any feminist is ever going step in and occupy the void a sex bot fills. They’re the ones digging the hole. This is obviously a case where not being part of the solution is indeed being part of the problem, and laughably so.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    SV has inherited and most operate within the US cultural puritanism though...
  - mac01021 8y ago
    Nothing stops us from dating or marrying outside of the "tech industry".
- personlurking 8y ago
  Re: China "Millions of single Chinese men desperately seeking a wife" [France 24 English, 26 min, 2017] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboNzluN6Nc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboNzluN6Nc I caught both this report and the one in my parent comment around the same time. The Chinese solution looks to be divided between sex dolls and importing women (though leaning more towards the latter) while the Japanese solution is about sex dolls and rent-a-families (possibly leaning towards the former).
- k__ 8y ago
  Now I feel a bit bad for having three girlfriends :/

hkai 8y ago

I'm sure our kids will laugh at this and will spend much less times on their phones or in their rooms than we did.

sunseb 8y ago
https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore/ https://www.wired.com/story/why-teens-arent-partying-anymore...

onetimemanytime 8y ago

Is this the future of every society?

tathougies 8y ago
No. Religious societies that ascribe to traditional values will dominate, as they have in the past, and likely always will. Societies that subscribe to regressive norms will eventually die out, as we're seeing in Japan and Europe.
- vinay427 8y ago
  What do you mean by dying out? Can you provide an explanation and/or sources for societies in Europe that you believe are dying out?
  - deogeo 8y ago
    Probably referring to below-replacement birth-rates.
  - sunseb 8y ago
    People do less and less chilidren in the western world, and Africa's population to double to 2.4 billion by 2050. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/10305000/Africas-population-to-double-to-2.4-billion-by-2050.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianoc...
    - jeena 8y ago
      I don't think there is a single country which fertility rate went up since the 60ies, not even in Africa: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN
      - sunseb 8y ago
        https://www.passblue.com/2016/03/01/egypts-fertility-rate-turns-upward-but-why/ https://www.passblue.com/2016/03/01/egypts-fertility-rate-tu...

lai 8y ago

Also look up family rental service.

guessmyname 8y ago
Asian Boss made a video some time ago about it [1]. Conan also made one, a bit more on the humorous side [2]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhYMirs7fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhYMirs7fk [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaXw2ztCqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaXw2ztCqU

nwellinghoff 8y ago

Yep turns out all you need is a friend. This is a draw back and advantage of city life. if you want to be isolated, you can

8ytecoder 8y ago
Rural and sub urban areas can be way more isolating. I don't think it's a city phenomenon.
- corobo 8y ago
  Speaking only from my own experience I'd have to disagree, to isolate yourself in a rural area you have to become the weird person with the curtains closed 24/7 that people talk about In a city you simply cease to exist if you don't leave your apartment
  - code_duck 8y ago
    Some rural areas are so isolated, or neighbors so unconnected, that nobody is talking about you or even aware of you. There may not even be anyone near who would be a candidate to discuss you. For example, my friends who live in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. They moved from the Midwest and rented a 60 acre plot. They have yet to meet any of their neighbors after about 10 months. They’ve vaguely gotten to know people who work at the hardware or grocery stores, but these people don’t think about them outside of work. Since default is to stay at home and have no contact with anyone, they’d have to go out of their way to have social contact with people in the town. This is not nearly as remote as some areas I know, either. And even more remote areas, if your neighbors talked about you at all, it might just be like “oh yeah, there’s some guy that lives down by 45 with the truck” and they keep you in mind in case they have an emergency.

alecco 8y ago

How about addressing the cause instead of focusing on the cure? After WWII they adopted a view of masculinity as toxic. And women have a big part on this phenomenon. > In a 2011 poll of Japanese boys aged between 16 and 19, 36% said they were not interested in having sex; > the figure for girls in the same age group was at 59%. https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/01/13/no-sex-please-were-young-japanese-men/ https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/01/13/no-sex-please...

dragant 8y ago
I don't see your point. How did you link toxic masculinity, not wanting sex, and coaxing men out of the room?
magic_beans 8y ago
> After WWII they adopted a view of masculinity as toxic. And women have a big part on this phenomenon. You have no source for this at all. Don't blame Japanese women for Japanese men's lack of sexual desire. It seems Japanese women WANT to have sex. So... the problem is obviously not women.
- YorkshireSeason 8y ago
  > You have no source for this at all. Have you got credible sources for your crazy misandry, and crazy generalisations about JP men, women?
- commandlinefan 8y ago
  Well, not OP, but I can’t help but notice that women complain, a LOT, about male attention. Young men can be forgiven for taking that to mean that they just don’t want any of it.
tartoran 8y ago
I don't think that's the case here. The Japanese are tough on the weak, and make it hard to adopt to the society. Kids are bullied if they don't conform to the norm. This is not dealt with in Japan or hasn't been too much except for the few NGOs doing a good job. And it seems that their approach works.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

the_af 8y ago

I wonder how different this is from therapeutic companions [1], once you strip it from its "something weird that happens in Asia" trappings. A companion is sometimes used in Western countries for people who have mental disorders or difficulties (sometimes very serious, like Schizophrenia), sometimes as an alternative to internment. They are often very expensive, unfortunately. These "rental sisters" don't look bizarre when looked through this lens. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6741585 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6741585