Perhaps it seems sad that people are paying actors money to act as family, but (money aside) I view this as no different than a number of people born into families that are less than ideal. Those people enrich their lives by creating a family composed of close-knit friends and mentors, thereby CHOOSING the people in their family. It would be emotionally more rewarding to pick family that way but some places and some people don't have that kind of luxury.

I think it's very sad that there is a demand for a business like this, and in the States or here in the UK, it would be ridiculed and people would be too ashamed to use it. However, I bet a lot of people in the US and UK would benefit from it.

I suppose ideally we'd all have sprawling extended support systems made up of wonderful people we're glad to be connected inextricably with, but most big families don't fit that description. A lot of people have unhealthy relationships with their family, but are dependent on/beholden to them nonetheless. I think I'd rather choose my team member than have to depend on someone with whom the dynamics were imbalanced and screwy just because they happened to be related to me.

A much better alternative is a Big Brothers type service where the kids form actual relationships with adults that are there to mentor them rather than there to earn a buck.

It doesn't surprise me that in a society that is so male-dominate mothers would find comfort in having even a fake father figure around. As it is mentioned, there are many social instances that are generally handled by the male of the house. If you have noisy neighbors and want someone to handle the confrontation for you, is it much different than hiring someone to take care of your pesky weeds?

Again, I would not personally ever see a need for such a service. But, the family dynamics are different in Japan than they are in Canada, the US and Britain (Which is where I assume most neatorama posters come from.)

The nuclear family has no safety net. If either parent becomes ill, dies or abandons the family, the remaining parent is pushed into multiple roles that would normally have been filled by members of an extended family.

Renting a family member actually makes a kind of sense. It's sad, but when a family has grandparents living in two different parts of the country (up to four if they're divorced), one parent with the children in another, and the other divorced parent into a fourth location, what are you going to do?

It will just be an awkward meeting of well-compensated unrelateds.