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  1. #1
    Banned Tennis's Avatar
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    Exclamation A multi-million dollar industry has sprung up to deal with Japan's loneliness issue

    A multi-million dollar industry has sprung up to deal with Japan's loneliness problem. But it has a dark side.

    She's always there, always listening and always ready to cater to her husband's every whim. The problem is she's trapped in a tube. And she's not real.

    Meet Azuma Hikari, Japan's holographic "wife of the future", according to her inventor Minori Takechi, who believes his AI construct can go some way to solving Japan's problem with loneliness.

    Hikari is just one example of the multi-million dollar virtual love industry that's sprung up in a country where over 60 percent of unmarried people aged between 18 and 34 have no relationship with a member of the opposite sex.

    Elsewhere in the sphere, a Pokemon Go-like smartphone game, developed by Tokyo company Voltage, sees players of either sex able to take digital lovers on dates anywhere in the world. Yet another uses virtual reality to put a player in the role of a woman who has been captured by a handsome rich man, to explore themes of dominance and submission.

    Hikari, however, stays in one place. Like Apple's Siri given human form, she can chat, respond to commands (turn on the lights, turn off the lights) and is always ready to lend an ear. But unlike Siri, she has a darker side — skimpy outfits, titilating conversation and a submissive desire to always keep her man happy.

    "I actually want to make her into a person who understands her husband and will always be there to support him," explains Takechi, who is selling his prototype for $2,700 and already reports 300 pre-orders, mainly from men in their 20s and 30s.

    Simple companionship isn't Takechi's only vision. His virtual world of husband and dutiful wife, he says, “could develop into love, if we keep investigating further.”


    @4.00 they talk about the unsettling game.

    What do you make of this? Do you support these virtual companions? Won't it make these social outcasts even more likely to shun the public sphere?

    Is it really a dark side like Bloomberg claims?

    @Aeula are you interested in one of these?
    Last edited by Tennis; 2017-10-04 at 02:31 AM.

  2. #2
    Titan Al Gorefiend's Avatar
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    Wasn't there another thread a while back that said Japan is having a population crisis because the chicks aren't having babies?

    Guess all those fancy gadgets aren't replacing the results of going on actual dates, hmm.

  3. #3
    Ha, what a bunch of screwballs! ha ha.

    Where do they download the VR app for the guy exactly and does it work with Occulus? Asking for a friend.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tennisace View Post


    @4.00 they talk about the unsettling game.

    What do you make of this? Do you support these virtual companions? Won't it make these social outcasts even more likely to shun the public sphere?

    Is it really a dark side like Bloomberg claims?
    I think it's fantastic and see no problems with the "dark side" for it's just a prototype of many many different personalities to come. I'm looking forward to this and the development of bodies that may host these persons one day.

  5. #5
    What, no angry-reactionary-retard smiley for this one? Did you misclick Tennis? Are you actually in support of this one? Tsk, tsk, tsk.

    Apps like these are just lame. While the simulation of simpeltons in probably successfully possible with these can't really see that being interesting for long. I would like to think that role-playing with their body pillows has a better chance of producing a stimulating "conversation".. poor japanese people, their society (mostly in the mega cities probably) is just fucked up between all the tradion crap, the terrible working conditions and the high tech advances.

  6. #6
    There's a very simple solution staring Japan in the eyes and it has nothing to do with tech. Give your workers more time off (God knows they work some crazy hours), give companies an incentive to give them this time off, then have a lot of fun regular social events. Then, on top of that put some program in place to help keep families stable and have one person stay home.

  7. #7
    Immortal Zandalarian Paladin's Avatar
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    I don't see a problem with it. We live in a society where human relationships get more complicated as time goes - and not everyone's up to deal with it. Is that truly surprising? Not everyone will adhere to our modern definition of a relationship. Add to this a good dose of anxiety, mental illnesses, and unachievable expectations and you end up with a ticking time-bomb between humans. Jobs, studies, performance... in the end, we can't juggle with them all.

    Now, I don't think I'd be able to have a virtual boyfriend. There are no genuine interactions, it's physically disconnected. It's more of a placebo emotional relationship rather than a genuinely emotional and physical one.

    But if some people are fine with it and it can allow them to be happy, then frankly it's none of our business. We should start fixing real-world relationships before we start prohibiting virtual ones.
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  8. #8
    It's pretty cool, but damn if it doesn't speak volumes of how much of looser you are if you own one.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Lythelia View Post
    There's a very simple solution staring Japan in the eyes and it has nothing to do with tech. Give your workers more time off (God knows they work some crazy hours), give companies an incentive to give them this time off, then have a lot of fun regular social events. Then, on top of that put some program in place to help keep families stable and have one person stay home.
    The problem is that Japan's place in the global economy is that of supplier of medium to high tech products to a low to medium price. They are in direct competition with other asian markets, especially in the more industrial sectors. They can't really afford to change anything that would increasse prices (lowering their profits is not happening in any economy on this planet..) because then people could buy straight from the european or US markets for the high quality stuff or go to the other asian markets for cheaper goods. I guess they could change something in the company cultures, but I fear that would just lead to more unemployment as well.

  10. #10
    I read an article about the disconnect between many dating-age men and women in Japan. The guys study hard through school, then work hard as salarymen. There's little interaction between men and women during this time. The guys end up with no social skills outside of office politics, while the women are independent and have had no real need to have a man around (especially one who's still into anime and video games at 30). Marriages happen later, with fewer children, and the ripple effect is finally being felt.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Haidaes View Post
    The problem is that Japan's place in the global economy is that of supplier of medium to high tech products to a low to medium price. They are in direct competition with other asian markets, especially in the more industrial sectors. They can't really afford to change anything that would increasse prices (lowering their profits is not happening in any economy on this planet..) because then people could buy straight from the european or US markets for the high quality stuff or go to the other asian markets for cheaper goods. I guess they could change something in the company cultures, but I fear that would just lead to more unemployment as well.
    A small price hike isn't going to destroy their economy, assuming the companies couldn't find a way to keep their costs down. However, having population problems and not enough people to work will kill your economy.

  12. #12
    The Insane Aeula's Avatar
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    I am neither lonely nor a technophile, Tenn.

  13. #13
    Why do people still think rich people don't do the same shit as poor or average people lol.
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  14. #14
    How creepy and cringey. Both the male and female versions.

    In my experience the issue isn't so much with Japanese women. I dated one for a long while, and casually dated a handful of others while in college, and they seemed relatively normal as women. Some of the Japanese guys I worked with seemed a little odd, but not all of them were socially maladapted shut-ins.

    Maybe if you want to meet someone, don't be a socially maladapted shut-in who expects love to find its way right into your apartment while you just play video games?

  15. #15
    Banned Strawberry's Avatar
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    Damn what a paradise, all those hot women and most of them are single.
    I don't mind these virtual assistants for Japanese men. More women to me

  16. #16
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    <bungee checks Tennisace's avatar. Mayhap he doth protest to much?>

    Quote Originally Posted by Tennisace
    What do you make of this? Do you support these virtual companions? Won't it make these social outcasts even more likely to shun the public sphere?
    I think they had this covered long before holographs....

    With COVID-19 making its impact on our lives, I have decided that I shall hang in there for my remaining days, skip some meals, try to get children to experiment with making henna patterns on their skin, and plant some trees. You know -- live, fast, dye young, and leave a pretty copse. I feel like I may not have that quite right.

  17. #17
    Scarab Lord Skizzit's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Archmage BloodElf4Life View Post
    I don't see a problem with it. We live in a society where human relationships get more complicated as time goes - and not everyone's up to deal with it. Is that truly surprising? Not everyone will adhere to our modern definition of a relationship. Add to this a good dose of anxiety, mental illnesses, and unachievable expectations and you end up with a ticking time-bomb between humans. Jobs, studies, performance... in the end, we can't juggle with them all.

    Now, I don't think I'd be able to have a virtual boyfriend. There are no genuine interactions, it's physically disconnected. It's more of a placebo emotional relationship rather than a genuinely emotional and physical one.

    But if some people are fine with it and it can allow them to be happy, then frankly it's none of our business. We should start fixing real-world relationships before we start prohibiting virtual ones.
    The problem is that things like this do lead to real world issues. This sort of thing, along with a number of other factors, has turned Japan into the country with the highest average age of it's citizens. People are living longer due to medical advances and younger people are not having children.

  18. #18
    If these programs become more sophisticated they could train inexperienced men about women, maybe give them confidence so they could get a real girl. That would be a good thing.

    Like the virtual girl could get mad and when you ask why she is mad it just makes her angrier.
    Last edited by Independent voter; 2017-10-04 at 02:42 PM.
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Lythelia View Post
    There's a very simple solution staring Japan in the eyes and it has nothing to do with tech. Give your workers more time off (God knows they work some crazy hours), give companies an incentive to give them this time off, then have a lot of fun regular social events. Then, on top of that put some program in place to help keep families stable and have one person stay home.
    This.

    Its simply stupid right now to have a kid, or more than 1 kid as a jap atm.

    Additionally it may just be a product of their society maturing faster than others. Primitive societies that recently acquire the supplies needed to run a large family seem to start pumping out a ton of kids. After a generation or two these supplies get drained pretty fast and the following generations are into the 1 child or no child mindset.

    Just look at any western country and you can see this happen. Baby boomers blew through living space like there was no tomorrow, now theres little to no chance that you'll be buying a house of your own if you were born past 1990.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hubcap View Post
    If these programs become more sophisticated they could train inexperienced men about women, maybe give them confidence so they could get a real girl. That would be a good thing.

    Like the virtual girl could get mad and when you ask why she is mad it just makes her angrier.
    Guessing this is a joke, but that would probably turn Japanese men into a bunch of MGTOWs.

  20. #20
    The Insane Acidbaron's Avatar
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    For people new or not fully aware of Japan's Birthrate issue. I suggest watching this No Sex please, We're Japanese

    I know this is Tennis his MO to always look at it from what the "man" is doing wrong, but in this documentary i listed you'll see it's both the sexes. A woman at some point just straight up says "why go through the hassle of a relationship when i can pay for companionship of an interesting man".

    I have no idea how Japan's government is going to tackle this, as for this industry. It is only normal for a person to see profit and opportunity in a market that might see controversial and new to us but most definitely not to them.

    Somewhere they did the right thing in making sex much less of a taboo subject but somewhere in there they seem to have taken a wrong turn, or perhaps we are wrong and the need to procreate in a perhaps single partner relationship is merely something and old underdeveloped part of us, much like animals feel the need to.

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