Reaching 34 years old without having had a single romantic relationship seems like the typical premise of a romantic comedy, but in Japan it’s a harsh demographic crisis. In a desperate and practical act, a Japanese man decided to take matters into his own hands on August 8 and hired the services of a real waifu rental. Far from seeking an extravagant fantasy or pretending to have a perfect girlfriend, his goal was painfully honest: he needed a dress rehearsal to learn how to have a real-life date.

The meeting lasted exactly two hours and cost him dearly. The man paid 17,000 yen for the service fee and another 15,000 yen for the meal, totaling 32,000 yen for the experience. Unlike typical clients, this user chose a 32-year-old woman known for being a skilled conversationalist, rather than the affectionate archetype who fakes eternal love. As he explained, this style was vital for overcoming his obvious communication issues. Like a good strategist, he used the outing to ask the woman to take decent photos of him, which he plans to use for his profile on dating apps now that the holiday season is over, sparking all sorts of empathetic comments in the community.

The emotional hangover came the next morning, when the man made a harsh reflection about his life. He admitted that while people his age are already married and having children, he feels like he’s practicing for a race that ended long ago and where he got stuck at the starting line. This sad story reflects a much larger problem in the Asian country, where surveys constantly reveal that a significant proportion of adults in their thirties have never had a sexual partner. Faced with this reality, strict structured companionship services have become the only safe method for thousands of people to develop basic social skills before trying to meet someone online.

As loneliness continues to push young Japanese men to pay high sums just to learn how to interact with the opposite sex in public places, do you think rental girlfriend services are a valid learning tool or just a bandage for a much deeper social wound?