Fake guests hired to attend Japanese weddings

Japanese brides and grooms are hiring phoney friends, colleagues and relatives to impress their new partners as economic downturn reduces pool of colleagues as guests.

Office Agents, a Tokyo-based company, is renting out fake friends, colleagues and family members to help pad out the guest list at events such as weddings.

For £127 (Y20,000), an agent will attend a wedding as a guest. They deliver a heart-tugging speech for cost an extra £64 (Y10,000) and a song or dance will set clients back a mere £32 (Y5,000).

Brides or grooms who are concerned that they do not have enough friends and want to impress their prospective partners and in-laws are among those secretly boosting the guest list with fakers.

The recession has further boosted the popularity of the service. With a growing number of Japanese employed in part time jobs, many requests relate to renting phoney bosses or colleagues as wedding guests to disguise their new reduced work status.

In a country where loss of face is particularly painful, others turning to the company for fake work-related guests have recently lost their jobs but want to maintain an air of respectability, according to Hiroshi Mizutani, who heads Office Agents. "We’ll attend the wedding as your friend instead of your friend,” said Mr Mizutani.