Boyfriend “rental” services have been around in Japan for a while and there are even virtual versions.
You can get “old guys”, young guys, and of course there are female equivalents too.
It’s not so different from the douhan system, where a host or hostess goes on a date with a client before taking them to the club for (expensive) drinks.
Kotaku reported on a Japanese morning TV segment showcasing boyfriend rental services.
Although the subject isn’t new, there were some interesting nuggets of information.
While there are much cheaper options out there, this service was expensive.
There’s “Fresh” for 5,000 yen ($40.22) an hour, “Regular” for 6,000 yen ($48.26) an hour, and “Special” for 7,000 yen ($56.31) an hour.
Most interestingly, there were some “statistics” about who uses boyfriend rental.
40% are housewives (40% of the users, that is, not 40% of housewives!) and with a return customer rate of 50%.
Sex isn’t on the menu here so these housewives just want some attention for 1-2 hours from a (young) man while they are stuck at home with their hardworking husband puts in his 15-hour office shift.
So they go for lunch together, go shopping together and even sing karaoke together…
This kind of thing can get expensive! As you can see here, the woman whose boyfriend rental date was featured on Hakunetsu Live Vivid, spent 39,000 yen ($313.71) for the six-hour rental fee.
Then, on top of that, there was an array of expenses:
- 1,030 yen ($8.29) on crepes
- 9,720 yen ($78.19) on shopping for accessories
- 4,089 yen ($32.89) on karaoke
- 14,590 yen ($117.36) on a meal
- 400 yen ($3.22) on sticker pictures at the arcade
- 200 yen ($1.61) on an arcade gameThe total cost of the boyfriend-rental date was 69,029 yen ($555.27).
Cynics might say that this is all her husband’s money!
