They share a common yearning for connection and found it on a touch screen. Her images reveal the secret lives of thirty-somethings who have accepted living alone instead of looking for love. I wanted to show the human aspect, the individual stories behind those who use these applications.” “When you Google ‘Japan’ and ‘love’, you find all these articles about lonely people who never get married,” she says.

“The girls behave very sweetly with the guys in what they say, how they respond to them, and with big eyes and heart-shaped faces-who wouldn’t want that?”ĭ’Aki teamed up with Swiss science writer Roland Fischer and together, they sought to go beyond the existing online conversation. “There is no friction in these relationships, obviously,” says Loulou d’Aki, a Swedish photographer who documented a number of Japanese players earlier this year. It’s one of Japan’s biggest gaming phenomenons called Love Plus – available on the Nintendo portable consoles and the iPhone. The girls can kiss, “hold” a player’s hand, exchange flirtatious text messages and even snap out in anger if the player leaves a conversation. While they can only interact with their partner through a pre-written script, these virtual beauties - Rinko, Manaka or Nene - offer a kind of instant emotional connection at the tap of a stylus. Some Japanese men are wooing girlfriends who don’t exist.

My virtual girl pc