NotCliche

So, what happens if the “friend” does this?

You’ve heard of many things in the service industry. Things like being a waiter, waitress, bartender and more are some of the jobs are that more or less the staple of the service industry.

However… Japan, being one of the more unique countries out there, seems to have a new kind of service that has existed since 4 years old. That is, “renting a friend” kind of service.

Sounds weird? Yeah, I know it does.

“Rent-a-friend” service is, well, essentially renting a friend or a person for a particular event. Ryuichi Ichinokawa, an experienced person that has pretended to be a relative, a higher-up or whatever has started his service of “renting a friend” since about 4 years ago.

Charging for a fee that differs from jobs to jobs, he offers clients a way of  providing stand-ins “to spare their clients’ blushes at social functions such as weddings and funerals.” Up to now, he has about 30 other people that are able to do the same thing as he does — pretending to be someone at a certain event.

This phoney friend business is somewhat strange in a sense, simply because as a stranger, you wouldn’t really know all about the client’s background. However, Ichinokawa had reportedly said that he had been rather successful as he hasn’t been found out once in his whole job time.

You know, I’ve never, ever, thought of using the title of “friend” as a way of earning money. But to think that such a business is thriving… one really has to wonder how many “friends” are really true friends when you do visit someone else in Japan…

Via: On Deadline.

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