You can rent an apartment, a car, textbooks or tools, so why not a platonic relationship? And there are companies doing just that: setting up people with a compatible fake friend, significant other or family member.

Don’t want to go to the gym alone and none of your actual friends will go with you? Rental friend.

Parents pressuring you to get married? Rental boyfriend or girlfriend.

Was your father not around as a child? Rental father.

It’s a service that may seem unnecessary at first glance, but it provides people with acceptance amidst everyday stressors.

This book examines the rental friend industry across the US and Japan, tells the stories of those who use it, and tries to guess the future of what an industry like this entails for the future of these societies.