Alizée RIBARIC

Modern solution to loneliness: implement a new virtual

companion in Japan

Abstract:
This study explored the pattern of virtual companion usage and loneliness among Japanese
citizens and examined how virtual companion were used to prevent or cure loneliness. It explains
society factors that influence users in their consumer behavior such as external, and personal
factors that push to this type of consumption, such as internal factors. It is a study focused on
virtual companion users to cure loneliness in Japan focusing on two populations, the elderly and
young single men, as they are more touched by loneliness and mental health related to a long-term
isolation. The cultural causes are investigated to identify the reasons behind this special consumer
such as masculinity score, workalcoholism and more. A list of advices before entering the country
are also given to help companies that have planned to implement a new virtual companion in
Japan reading software and hardware concerns (IA, design).

International Consummer Behavior - Final Report 2020

Introduction

For a few years now, virtual companions are rushing into our daily life. Thanks to our smartphones
and connected assistant, Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon, are the more known. As they are
part of our life now, and will be more democratize in the future, I felt important to gather
information about success and failure of virtual companions in a chosen country. Every culture has
its boundaries, and it applies also to virtual companions, but in western countries we are far from
the possibilities those virtual companions can offer. Japan is the nest of this new trend and virtual
companions are almost family members there, from learning to marital relationship, there is a
virtual companion for every purpose. As virtual companions are widely used in Japan, I wanted to
know which cultural influences brought this trend in the first place, and if Japan was predisposed to
easily adopt virtual companions to understand if other countries would follow the same path.

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As a marketing consultancy, my investigation conducted to several observations about Japanese
culture and its cultural framework. In order to give you the big picture about Japan culture and its
relation to virtual companions we are going first to analyze Hofstede insights about Japan.

Hofstede insights - japan score

Japan intermediate score in power distance, shows that Japan has always been a meritocratic
society. The notion of equality in Japanese education is very strong and the idea that everybody is
born equal and anyone can get ahed and become anything if this person work hard enough is strong.
But this success equality is mostly focus on men. This cultural dimension is highly linked with
Japan’s high score in masculinity. Workalcoholism is another expression of their masculinity.
Women still struggle to climb up the corporate ladders with the masculine norm of hard long
working hours. A high masculine score also shows that the society will be driven by competition,
achievement and success, being the winner, the best in field. This value system that starts in school
and continues throughout organizational life. But as Japan culture tends to be collectivist, this
competition and race for success often take place between groups. From very young age
schoolchildren compete each other in teams, then when grown up adults, Japanese workers tend to
be more efficient if they are the winning team against a competitor team. The scores we analyzed
explain that the phenomenon of workalcoholism is very present in Japan. Moreover, Japan’s high
uncertainty avoidance can be spotted in Japanese’s daily life. In fact, it is very common to have a
routine. This score can also be linked with workalcoholism meaning that it is a routine, almost a
lifestyle for workers: working a lot during the week, and release the pressure during week-ends with
binge drinking, with little or no time for a social relationship.
Japanese culture is also rich of cultural concept, some of them are interesting to look at to
understand consumer behavior towards virtual companions.

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First, anime culture in Japan is predominant and touch every generation: mangas success started
during the postwar period, and now anime have a wider global audience (Norris, 2009). Anime are
at the origins of several subcultures. The otakus is one of them, members of this circle are often
young single men, fans of anime, that have very little or no social life. They are often qualified as
‘nerds’ in Japan.
Moreover, Japanese are used to deal with AI in their daily life, for instance some Japanese avoid
human interactions. This relation to AI is so strong that one of famous Japan’s pop star is a
hologram. Hatsune Miku (appendix 1) does concert and her computer synthesized voice sings songs
that were crowdfunded from her global fan base by using a special software, fans all over the world
can make Miku songs by simply inputting text and melody.
Also, the concept of Gaman push Japanese people in need to not ask for help to their neighbors or
family. Gaman can be defined as « enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and
dignity » (Konishi et al., 2020). This uncomplaining endurance is closely related to behavior of
complying with conformity and silent heroism, and it is very common in Japanese society. This
concept of silent heroism is also in correlation with Kodokushi, a recent phenomenon in the country
of elder people dying alone at home and found month or years later, and the phenomenon of ole
people shoplifting to avoid being alone at home and deal with financial difficulties.
Finally, depression is very present in Japan, it is the country with the highest suicide rate. According
to studies, it is linked with loneliness: results indicated that the absence of family living together is
significantly related to depression. Plus, factors such as long-term care insurance, low levels of
social support, loss of appetite, suicidal ideation, financial strain, and worries in life are correlated
to depression. For those who live with others, hospital visits, sleep loss, absence of work with
income, and number of generations living together are related to depression. On the other hand, sex,
presence of spouse, drinking alcohol and smoking are not significantly related to depression.
(Fukunaga, 2012).

Virtual companions are chatbots or virtual assistants that provide help or fulfill a need of users. AI
technology are the core technology behind virtual companions, these systems enable users to
interact in written or verbal form using natural language. Studies shown that when dealing with
computer using human like characteristics, people tend to interact with them as if they were really
human beings (Fogg & Nass, 1997, Reeves and Nass, 1996). As a consequence, human-machine
interface designers are implementing interactive systems that stimulate human-like interaction. The

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more this type of interface conforms to the human communication style, the easier it is to use them
(Cassel et al., 2000).

Japan is know for its advanced technology especially in robots, people are used to interact with non
human interface, technology is a part of their everyday life. Isolated people is becoming the most
important problem for Japan right now. As a consequence of this, the natality rate is decreasing
since 1980 (Peng, 2002).

Thus, it isn’t surprising that Japan is the nest of virtual companions and those which are already
available on the market were created by Japanese companies that knew about consumers behavior,
and the trends in the country. As a new company implementing a new virtual companion to Japan’s
market, you may face cultural issues.
As Japan was the first country to offer this type of products, they are advanced in terms of AI,
technologies, competences, and know how to make them look and think human. Thus, a non
technologic advanced product would automatically fail in Japan because consumers are going to see
it as a retarded product compared to other choices on the market. Loneliness is also well established
within Japanese society and foreign marketer won’t perceive it the same way as Japanese citizens,
thus a different perception of loneliness may leads to cultural equivalence in product.
Indeed, best-seller on Japan market are virtual companions to deal with loneliness, most known are
the Gatebox virtual wife, and the Seal. The first one was made to fulfill single men needs in term of
relationships. It is a holographic anime inspired character that talks and even text the user. It was
released by the firm Vinclu in 2017 (appendix 2). The box offer the possibility to change the design
of the « wife » and to choose among several known anime characters (appendix 3).
The other one is a seal named PARO, as the Japanese brand that sells it (appendix 4), that heals and
decrease loneliness by activating emotional reaction in patient. The power of the baby seal was
highlighted through different studies: robotic seals reduced stress and increased interaction when
left in a public area (Sidner et al., 2014). Paradoxically, virtual companions increase isolation of
users by providing a social but non human interaction. Filled needs aren’t creating a real social
relationship between two entities and give the illusion of social life, which may increase the
phenomenon of Kodokushi.
Looking at those two products, we can clearly see the influence of anime culture and otakus
subculture in the design. As it is a far less developed trend in Western countries, it is complicated

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for marketers to create an anime character that would fit consumers expectations. Produce a non
anime like virtual companion wouldn’t work for most of potential consumers as they seek for a
virtual wife, and also because it would changed too much compared to designs anime fans and
otakus are used to. In 2011, Toyota americanized the design of Hatsune Miku for the western
market and faced a lot of negatives reactions (Appendix 5 and 6) (Le, 2014).

Consumers behavior are based on internal and external influences, and some are more relevant to
analyze Japanese’s relation to virtual companions.
External influences are social status, demographics, reference group, family influence, cultural and
subcultural influence, and environment. Internal influences are inspiration, understanding,
awareness, attitudes, desires, perception, and thought. This framework will allow us to identify
which of these factors are going to play a role in implementing a VC in Japan. As we seen above,
Japanese users of virtual companions mostly try to avoid loneliness at different level (love,
family…) which implies particularly to focus on external influences such as family, reference
groups, and subculture, and internal influences such as desires and perception.
According to datas from the 2000’s, a large proportion of elderly are being cared for by their
families (either married child or not) but it is partly because lack of public and institutional support.
But the number of elder living with their family is decreasing (Peng, 2002). This situation creates a
lot more loneliness in the society, partly because single adults living with an elder will be alone and
remain lonely when the elder leaves. And because of workalcoholism culture, these single people
won’t go out to find a partner. As more of men are involved in the workalcoholism culture, they
often stay lonely after the death of their last parent. On the other side, more elder women face
loneliness, because generally they aren’t in the working system and have no money to live. This can
be also explained by the decline of the natality rate: there is more elder than active people, and elder
doesn’t have child to care for them.
Other reference group have a lot of influence in Japan, as anime culture and Otakus (which can also
be describe as a subculture), the process of informational influence occurs when an individual uses
the behaviors and opinions of reference group members as potentially useful bits of information.
The Gatebox virtual wife was very popular among Otakus because possible character to choose
were all originated from Otakus subculture, then because it is a mostly online community, word-to-
mouth about the product worked.
External influences are completed with internal influences. Desires and motives of the consumer are
to fill the need to not remain alone, to not be lonely. They want to have social interactions without

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the constraints: being unable to take care of wife because of work, difficulties to talk to opposite
sex, or being alone because you’re the last member of your family. Moreover, as virtual companions
are well seen in Japanese society because of the phenomenon of Gaman (silent heroism), it is better
to seek help from robots than humans.

Moreover, self-concept take an important place in Japanese’s consumer behavior. Self-concept is

the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference to him/her-self as an object
(Hawkins & Mothersbaugh, 2013). It is the reflection of the consumer to himself, the society, and
about what consumer he wants to be. Understanding self-concept of virtual companions users is
crucial to understand what they want to be and how they want to be seen, this is a core characteristic
to market the perfect VC for them.

To successfully implement your new product on Japanese market I recommend your company to
take into account this set of actions.
First, the virtual companion have to fill Japanese’s standards in terms of robotics, hiring high skilled
technicians and engineer can be determinant in the product success. The interface must be able to
interact like a real human being. Studies about human computer flattery relationships shows that
when a computer flattered users, they view themselves, their performance and the interaction more
positively, and the vision towards the computer was also more positive (Fogg & Nass, 1997).
Moreover, the ritualized Japanese life should be taken into consideration during programming, the
AI must be able to adapt to users daily life and quickly understand their habits.
But as the inside, the outside is also very important. A virtual companion design based on an anime
character would certainly fit with most Japanese preferences, as mangas are intergenerational and
wide part of culture. But your company have to keep in mind that anime culture is something it
doesn’t masters. So, using an animal like virtual companion could be a great alternative; it would
implies less sales, but also less risks. The advantage in Japan, is that using machines is very
common, interact with robots is part of daily life which also means that older people may already
know how to use a virtual companion and won’t have to change a lot their consumer behavior to
adopt your new product.
As loneliness is the gravity point of virtual companions in Japan, the robot must be able to text
when the users is absent from home. A family texting system could also be integrated to the robot to
keep user’s family members informed about user’s daily life. It would help overcome Gaman

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phenomenon. This could go deeper with a system that give user’s health informations to local
hospital to help fight Kodokushi. Numerous datas are going to be exchanged, also as personal
thoughts and conversations, the AI system must be very safe. High uncertainty avoidance score of
Japan clearly indicate that security shouldn’t be neglected.
The buying and delivery system should also be adapted to the target, otakus tend to avoid social
contact and thus massively order online or use vending machines. In this case no human interaction
should exist between the seller and the buyer; selling virtual companions in shops could curb buyers
to come and buy your product.
Finally, social status are important in Japan, thus hiring a celebrity is very common to advertise a
product. The publicity should of course be adapted to your targeted consumers. Otakus will rely
more on anime characters they like, it can be very specific, while older people will focus on
someone their age that they consider reliable.
To understand Japanese loneliness and what it implies in terms of marketing, it is important to take
into account external influences and especially family structure in Japan. Elders often live with their
child, either married or not, but since the 80s this number is decreasing (Peng, 2002). Without a
clear understanding of Japan’s family structure, a company won’t be able to spot the exact need
users try to fill especially because they vary over factors such as genre, sex… In fact, 60% of
unmarried young people have no romantic relationship, and the well-known work culture is very
strong. With such high professional requirements and frustrating dating opportunities, it may be
difficult for young Japanese to find partners. The consequence is that loneliness comes very early in
Japanese life and they get used to it.

The reference group influence is also very important, especially for otakus community. Knowing
that most of the exchange among this group members are made through internet, information goes
fast and neglecting this aspect is neglecting the power of word to mouth and influence.
Otakus subculture is complex and reflects Japanese society left behind. They often have trouble to
match with opposite sex partner, thus they like their partner to behave a certain way and are not at
ease with some of the human social accepted interactions. Otakus likes and dislikes should shape
the personality of the virtual companion to fit with most members of the community expectations.

Internal influences are also crucial to understand loneliness culture in Japan and consumer
expectations. The principal motives is to not be alone, to feel loved and cared about without any

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obligation to fill an emotional void. This is correlated to workalcoholism culture and self-concept
because the work is taking so much space in Japanese life they don’t have time anymore for social
interactions and don’t want to make effort towards opposite sex because they have trouble getting
along with it.

Indeed, Japan is facing a natality issue and its population is getting older and older. Thus, many
elder can’t take care of themselves. Thats why a lot of them choose to shoplift to be imprisoned.
Many elder choose this because at least in prison that don’t have to car for financial issues, and
people are there to take care of them.

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Conclusion

Implementing a virtual companion in Japan will be easy in terms consumer habits because it is very
common in Japanese culture to use robots in everyday life. But some cultural issues might arises in
terms of technology advancement and design. As Japan is a very technologic country and is the
basis of anime culture, it implies designs and behavior inspired by anime culture for virtual
companions, especially for virtual wife designated to Otakus. It is essential for a foreign company
to keep that in mind while creating their virtual companion. However, it is possible to choose an
animal design to enter the Japanese market of virtual companion, targeting elder women that are
alone and look for a cute companion to interact with. As japan is facing two different culture of
loneliness, it is important to understand the motives of each user to create product that fit users
expectations.

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Websites :

The Gatebox website (2020), product description [Online] available at https://www.gatebox.ai/en/

(accessed: 12 November 2020).

Hofstede insights websites (2020), Japan’s cultural score [Online] available at hofstede-
insights.com/country-comparison/japan/ (accessed: 10 November 2020).

The PARO robots website (2020), product description, [Online] available at http://
www.parorobots.com/ (accessed: 15 November 2020).

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Appendix

Appendix 1 - Hatsune Miku, virtual singer

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Appendix 2 - Gatebox virtual wife

Appendix 3 - Gatebox character possibilities

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Appendix 4 - PARO therapeutical baby seal

Appendix 5 - Toyota’s Hatsune Miku advertising « Americanized » version

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Appendix 6 - Toyota’s Hatsune Miku advertising corrected design version

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