The earliest known rental family service was offered by Japan Efficiency Corporation (Nihon Kokasei Honbu) starting in the fall of 1991.
Japan Efficiency, run by Satsuki Oiwa, was started in 1987 to train corporate employees, but after hearing complaints about unsatisfactory relationships, began to also offer professional actors for "soft service — reaching others with a sympathetic heart".
[5] In 2007, the Super-grandparents site was created in France to match children with surrogate grandparents for terms varying from one month to one year.
[6] After reading a 2009 news article regarding the service, Scott Rosenbaum founded the United States-based Rent-a-Friend in October 2009, a worldwide service which provides paying subscribers with contact information for local platonic companions who can be hired at rates set by the companion.
Maybe it will just result in some short-lived embarrassment, or perhaps the damage will be deeper, rippling through their life.By 2009, there were around ten rental family service agencies in Japan.
[9] In 2010, CNN reported that some Chinese companies were hiring foreigners to serve as ersatz employees and partners, implying the presence of overseas business connections.
[10][11] Companies are able to encourage real estate investment because the mere presence of foreigners outside the major cities imply that region is attracting international attention.
[12] Some personal advertisements in China offered rental services to serve as partners so the client's parents would not worry about their continued single status, especially at holidays.
[21] Another company, Ikemeso Takkyūbin, offers a service to induce people to cry, thereby achieving a sense of catharsis.
[21][22] David McNeill wrote, for The Independent, the loss of lifetime employment opportunities had broken professional relationships, where "many companies were family-like affairs where workers spent most of their lives and knew their bosses" and family life in Japan had similarly fractured: "A growing number of people are putting off marriage or children and leading atomised, lonely lives in cramped urban apartments.