“Recent surveys suggest that Japanese university students are finding it increasingly difficult to make friends, and that this is a leading cause for them failing to attend classes, and even dropping out of university altogether. But most striking of all, are the stories of those who are so afraid of being seen alone and labelled as a ‘loner’ by their peers… Requests for rent-a-friends at Client Partners are around several tens per month. Most are from young people who are bewildered by the distance they feel from other people, who are anxious, and who have lost their confidence. Abe Maki (37), a representative from the company, said:’These people don’t have any strong sense of self-worth, so they take more care than is necessary of how others judge them. Still, more often than not, they have a lot of online friends. That’s because online they have one-directional communication with people, where they don’t need to the other person to think well of them.” w/ photos

“A Tokyo monk bar run by a Buddhist priest serves prayers and sermons along with soul-cleansing cocktails.” — itnnews

“This experience transported me to a distant planet where I enjoyed the lollypops and the piano flute magic thingy.” — kingbabolos

“North Korea are trying to develop this as we speak.” — baddaboomb

“Wear someone else’s face with the Face Stealer App for iPhone.” — Diginfonews

“and now… I am disturbed… well… I guess this means not looking at girls the same way for the next week… or just Asian girls.” — Turtleand Hisshell

“It must become difficult to keep perspective on what is ‘unusual’ or unique to Japan after living there for so long.” — Necroserpent

“Its like concentrated weaponized cuteness.” — Keirodious

“The next step in dog evolution is here.” — Gencoil

“I found it funny… during the illustration of the mannequin and the human, I was thinking, if they use it to lure you to go into the story and buy clothes, who’s really the marionette here?” — darkerforest