Rent a Middle Age Man in Japan, the Effects of Stigmatizing Mental Health

I recently saw on a few reddit posts and also a few videos made by some youtubers, about a quirky service being offered in Japan. Japan is the king of odd and quirky services but looking much deeper many of them turn a light to some of the darker sides of Japanese culture. This service where you can rent a middle age man is quite possibly one of the many services that has popped up in order to aid a culture that stigmatizes mental health and “burdening” your friends with your problems.

The basis of the service is for about 10 USD per hour you can rent a middle age man and really do anything you want (not sexual). In the west this idea would be ridiculous and many people would assume that if it was used it would only be for sexual purposes, but that is not the case in Japan. The vast majority of people that rent these men do nothing but talk to them, often about problems in their own lives. Japan may be one of the most population dense countries in the world, but it can also be one of the most isolationist.

Those who don’t conform to the culture are often socially exiled. There is a layer to Japanese society where you present a social face and never show any problems or struggles you might be having. Often foreigners find it hard to break through this upper layer which is why many people might label the culture as cold or fake. The truth is in order to break past the superficial social layer it takes a lot of time and work. However that being said sometimes Japanese people befriend foreigners solely so they can try to unburden themselves because they know they couldn’t do it with their Japanese friends.

Many times even talking with your closest friends about struggles in your life like divorce, depression, ect is complete taboo. Mental health as a whole is very taboo in Japan, which is probably one of the reasons for such a high suicide rate per capita. It is natural for people to talk about their problems and unburden ourselves, we are social animals after all. Rather than talk to a friend or a professional, a complete outsider is seen as preferred when looking to let loose. While perhaps it might be near impossible to talk to your own father about your problems, renting one for an hour might be the solution.

The men that partake in this renting program are usually mostly looking to meet interesting people and have the types of candid conversations that rarely happen in their own lives. It is easy to open up to a stranger you have never met and most likely will never come in contact with outside of the program. I cant say that it is the healthiest service, I think talking to a healthcare professional is much more proactive, but that being said, it is better than nothing.