Anecdote: Only in Japan, I hope.

In Japan, where marriage itself is an institution under threat, a new phenomenon of actors taking the place bridesmaids, best-men, friends and family in wedding ceremonies is increasing.

The demand is great enough that some companies specialize in providing actors to stand in at Wedding. One such company “Wedding Assist”, said every year sees more demand. It already has 30 actors as members of staff. Another “freelancer” took over one hundred jobs as a stand-in friend last year.

These actors are often given quite specific instructions, such details of how they met the wife (it is normally women who request actors) and what to say. In some cases, actors requested to give a speech, to bless the marriage. In one case, the company was asked to provide actor to play the parents, brothers and sisters of one woman – the whole family.

Often the actors are hired by one party (the bride) without the knowledge of the husband. One woman confessed that she had hired actors because she could not fill her quota of friends for the wedding ceremony. She felt so embarrassed that she could not tell her husband, and instead hired actors. She had changed jobs so many times that she had lost all connection to her friends. Another woman said that after she quit Uni her friends circle had collapsed.

These women had no time for a hobby, or religious service, and no social network outside of work or Uni. But in a society under economic pressure those networks are failing. A society on the edge, the isolation of Tokyo and other big cities in Japan is truly turning out some strange social phenomena.

This was inspired from the late night news story about marriage in Japan. Not normally an area I care much about, but it chimed with my experiences of Japan. The story was called “Muen Shakai”, perhaps translated best as “A Society Without Social Bonds (Friends).”