QuoteIn recent years, a number of agencies have been offering "rent-a-friend" services paid by the hour.

Customers can rent an agency employee as a fake friend, family member, or companion for various occasions such as weddings, funerals and parties. Some use them just to have a conversation partner to ease times of loneliness and isolation in old age.

The married Nishimoto says he has considered stopping the service several times, but found that he needed his clients just as much as they needed him.

"I never know exactly what they're going to ask for when they rent me, and of course that's a bit scary, but it's also why it's so interesting. Honestly, I've never had problems with any weird clients... I've had plenty of emotional experiences."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/japanese-rent-men-paid-just-listen-045544065.html?ref=gs

... wonder what the suicide rate is?

Maybe they got special rates for difficult requests:

$15 extra for nodding in approval.
$10 extra for crying.
$5   extra for sticking you chin in you palm and saying, "Hmmmm, really?"
$1   for approval, "no that does not make you look fat!"

Suicide is a major concern in Japan. There's even the matter of choosing the right forest to hang yourself in (Aokigahara) to which subway train is best to walk in front of.

Those are the folks who can't find a mate, in a country with sorely-dwindling male population. At least these people are trying to do something more positive about their loneliness.