Rental family concept in Japan

Hi everyone , I just want to get clarity from Japanese people or who have lived there long time to understand the culture

I watch yesterday a movie called “ Rental family” which is about an American actor who have being living in Japan, Tokyo for 7 years and try to blend with the culture and people , and he doing some acting ( freelance) between time to time ( advertisement, small role in movies , etc.. ). Until he was offered a job to work in a “Rental family “ company , basically his job is to full fill customers requirement who want him to act as a groom or a father or other roles. At this point, I am aware of the idea that in Japan someone can rent a friend or a partner , etc.. but everyone know this is just fake .

However, this movie shows something else , it shows for example a lady who she have a young daughter but the husband has left them , and this lady ask the American actor to pretend ( lay ) to the young daughter that he is actually the father and he come to see her…. So she can feel happy . Another example of a lady that she will leave Japan and go to Canada but she want to lay on her parents that she is getting married of a Canadian white guy and moving to Canada , and she ask the America guy to act as her groom and do a full wedding ceremony so her parents believes and be happy and relief that she will be not alone abroad , which is actually a lie

I got very disturbed by this kind of lies and I want to understand is this really a thing in Japan ?

by node-2025