Only in Japan, real men go to a hotel with virtual girlfriends

This is both hilarious and incredibly sad. If they stopped playing these things they might have more luck getting a partner for real.

Also I can't help wondering if they get jealous when they notice the guy two tables over has the exact same imaginary girlfriend.

And we wonder why Japan is experiencing a population decline crisis.

It is pretty sad that this exists and there is demand for it. Anyways if it shows great numbers I am pretty sure there will be similar businesses all throughout Asia.

I can't help but think of the potential in China with their lack of porn access and a huge mismatch between the number of women and men.

Let us resist flashing the patio11 signal for this.

I suspect that the article portrays the handpicked most bizarre 1% of the visitors, while to the other 99%, it's no different than people booking a trip to Paris because they've watched "The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain".

"Some devoted fans will go so far as to pay twice the rate"

Wow! I would hav enever tought it would go this far. I have a hard time not seeing this as living in denial... Does that mean I am getting old?

Whenever I see these "Japanese people do the weirdest things" stories, I always wonder if the Japanese read stories that are along the lines of "Americans/Europeans do the weirdest things".

My not particularly bold prediction: This is going to become more common everywhere going forwards.