Starting today you live here now with me.
Japan has a problem with loneliness.
Almost 70% unmarried men and 60% unmarried women aged 18 to 34
are not in any form of relationship with the opposite sex.
This relationship crisis has spurred a multimillion-dollar virtual romance industry -
which aims to fill the emotional void through technology.
Meet Minori Takechi, the founder of Gatebox,
a Tokyo-based startup working on an AI-powered device with a virtual character for lonely men.
Takechi’s device can be linked to your smartphone,
making it possible to create a sense of relationship.
When you’re at work, Hikari might send you messages like “come back home soon”.
But it’s a disturbing vision of a relationship -
allowing users to retreat from human relationships into a fantasy of submission and titillation.
The dream of creating a virtual companion dates back to Takechi’s childhood.
At the age of 10, he moved to Malawi in Africa with his mum.
He didn’t speak the local language and made no friends at school,
so characters from video games and comic books became his fictional friends.
The hologram-like virtual wife is a relic of male-dominated relationships from decades past.
But this hasn't stopped single Japanese men from placing orders.
Takechi says they’ve got 300 pre-orders for the prototype which has a price tag of $2700.
Japanese women can also have virtual boyfriends.
Tokyo-listed company Voltage created a Pokemon Go-like augmented reality game
allowing users to take their virtual lovers anywhere.
In another virtual reality game -
users play a woman sitting in a chair who is auctioned to a rich man called Eisuke.
I’ve bought you. You’re mine.
And here you’re napping.
This unsettling game plays to a female masochist fantasy.
Its theme maybe upsetting to some, but on the streets of Akihabara,
Tokyo’s anime and manga area, no one was squeamish - in fact, they liked it.
Japan is developing virtual companions in different forms.
But all aimed at filling a void of human affection.
But will these virtual companions drive users further away from real human relationships
and complexities that go with them?
You may respond with either yes or okay.
I expect you to keep me entertained.