Tokyo model lets you share a beer with your sudden wife of eight years and play with your seven year-old daughter.

Japanese studio apartments may seem tiny by Western standards, but the truth is you really don’t need all that much space as a single person. You can fit places to sleep, hang your clothes, shower, and cook for-one-size meals into a surprisingly compact floor plan, and so really most Japanese people don’t even start thinking about buying a house until they’ve got a spouse, and often a kid too.

But one Japanese house builder is now willing to supply the family for you, at least on a temporary basis. The company, called Regard, makes custom homes (large-scale tract housing isn’t common in Japan) and is displaying a model home this month in Tokyo to give prospective clients an idea of what sort of services it can provide. In addition to being outfitted with fixtures and furniture, the house also includes a model family for you to try out, consisting of a wife and seven year-old daughter.

The visitor slides into the role of the family’s husband/father. Your wife, whom you’ve been married to for eight years, is described as having an active and warm personality, and a talented swimmer who loves cooking and her family. Meanwhile, your daughter is “a bit of a crybaby,” but has a strong sense of curiosity, and she also loves you very much.

▼ The family

The experience takes you through the joys of family life, as well as the rooms of the model home, starting with a cheerful “Welcome home!” when you step into the entryway. After that, you’ll move to the kitchen for some family cooking, followed by lounging around the living room and playing with your daughter, or doing some arts and crafts projects together in the doma,an earthen-floor workspace area.

There’s even a little time for just the grown-ups, as you and your wife enjoy a relaxing drink on the semi-open-air wood deck, with your choice of alcoholic beverage or soft drink. Speaking of the love of your simulated life, she’s none other than Japanese actress Saori Koide (known professionally as simply (“Saori”), who’s prepared to skilfully ad-lib in your conversations to really make it feel like you’ve been married and raising a child together for years.

Regard says the project’s aim is to broaden the perspective of young people who envision family life as a purely unpleasant bundle of responsibilities and personal constrictions, showing instead some of “the happy scenes that can be experienced in a house” that you share with others.

The model home will be shown in Tokyo’s Kokubunji district, with the model family residing there on November 19 and waiting for five husbands, to be chosen randomly from online applications that can be made here with Rigard.

Source, images: PR Times
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