Weekend: Rent-a-friends popular at weddings

A wedding is a major event in a person's life. Guest lists usually include the couple's parents, relatives, close friends, former teachers, bosses and colleagues. It's a list the bride and groom almost always agonize over before the big day.

But lately businesses that dispatch stand-ins as guests to these glorious occasions have proliferated in the Tokyo area, testimony some say not only to weakening human relationships but to the effects of the recession and the changing nature of the workplace.

At a party held at an Italian restaurant in Chiba Prefecture, following a formal reception, a woman in a gray dress took the microphone to give a celebratory speech as a friend of the bride since junior high school.

"She's the sort of person who thinks of others before she thinks of herself. She tends to keep to herself when she has something troubling her," the woman said. "I say this so her husband will notice and listen to what might be bothering her."

The woman resumed her seat amid a hearty burst of applause.

No one suspected that she met the bride for the first time that very day.

Far from being a school friend, or any other kind of friend for that matter, she is a worker registered with a temp agency called Office Agent based in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. It specializes in supplying "wedding guests" and other stand-ins to events. Among the guests applauding were about 100 fellow Office Agent staff members.

"The bride herself thought up my speech," the 32-year-old stand-in guest, a woman from Tokyo's Ota Ward, said. "I got it by e-mail through the agent. After I finished speaking I got together with the other staffers so I wouldn't have to engage in conversation with the real guests."

A 37-year-old company employee from Minato Ward is a veteran with more than 20 appearances as a substitute wedding guest under his belt. Mostly he plays the part of a friend or colleague of the groom. Occasionally he pairs up with a female staff member from the same agency to pose as a married couple. He makes speeches and sometimes sings as part of the guests' performance.

"I learned about this sort of job on the Internet and registered with the agency for the extra money," he said. "I enjoy the food they serve and the customary presents they hand out to the guests at the end of wedding receptions."

Knowing that exposure is just one misstep away keeps him on his toes.

When he makes a speech he is careful to avoid specifics. His rule is, keep it vague and keep it in the distant past to things like, "When we were students we used to drink together every night."

The most difficult role is that of a colleague. Before a reception, he memorizes the basic facts about the company, such as the head office address and the president's name. But keeping up with topics about department heads and section heads has proven tricky. "Lately, there seems to be more casual conversation at weddings. And I increasingly find myself having to slip outside for a smoke. It's a real relief when they start a bingo game and other sideshows."

Sometimes, the bride or groom comes over after the reception to thank him for having brightened up the party.

Office Agent was founded in 2001 by its president, Hiroshi Mizutani, 34, and others.

Last year the company handled roughly 100 orders in the Tokyo area, having grown 2.5 times since 2006, when the business of dispatching guest substitutes really began to take off.

The basic fee for a substitute guest is 20,000 yen, not including transportation, half going to the employee and half to the agency.

Additional fees are charged for giving speeches and other services.

Why invite strangers?

There are a number of reasons behind the burgeoning demand for substitute guests.

In some cases the bride and groom are temp workers with no close ties to the full-time staff at their workplaces but they still feel they need to invite people from work to keep up appearances.

Sometimes the agency is asked to send emergency stand-ins because invited colleagues have lost their jobs, and therefore their titles, or the company went bankrupt and the guests cannot attend.

"Sometimes, people ask for substitutes because guests suddenly canceled their attendance. But I'm inclined to think it's more because they don't have close friends," a veteran staffer at the agency said. "It makes me think how tenuous human relationships are nowadays."

Hidetaka Takemoto, former editor in chief of the wedding information magazine Zexy and currently in charge of sales for Tokyo wedding producer Novarese Inc., said, "Lately, there are people who think that rather than enlist casual acquaintances who probably aren't much interested in your wedding anyway, it's better to inflate the guest list by paying strangers to come."

Industry insiders say the number of Tokyo-area businesses dispatching substitute wedding guests rose from five in 2001 to 10 at present.

"With the lifetime employment system no longer operative, you can't comfortably invite as many office superiors and colleagues to your wedding as you once could," Takemoto said. "But the families on both sides still want to have guest lists for weddings. As long as that gap persists, you'll have people relying on services providing substitutes."

Some may wonder about the legal implications of this sort thing.

According to Tadanari Hagiwara, a lawyer well-versed in labor laws, the worker dispatch law doesn't apply here since the wedding couple, though they are commissioning the dispatch of temporary workers, are not operating a personnel dispatch business.

Lying about titles and positions, such those of lawyers, public officials or about academic degrees, touches on the minor offense law.

But Hagiwara said, "Attending weddings and delivering innocuous speeches while posing as friends or colleagues wouldn't be a problem in most cases."(IHT/Asahi: July 31,2009)