Ichinokawa launched his Hagemashi Tai [I Want to Cheer You Up] agency three-and-a-half years ago, after abandoning plans to become a qualified counsellor.

After a successful debut making the wedding speech, the requests came flooding in, says Ichinokawa, who takes days off from his job at a toy manufacturer to go on assignment. “People wanted women, old and young people, all sorts, but of course I couldn’t play all those roles myself.”

The affable, bespectacled 44-year-old now employs 30 agents of various ages and both sexes, across Japan with the skills and personality to temporarily adopt a new identity: as the father of a boy who is in trouble at school, for instance, or the parents of a woman attending a formal match-making party.

The number of rent-a-friend agencies in Japan has doubled to about 10 in the past eight years. The best known, Office Agent, has 1,000 people on its books.