Crazy in love? Japanese man ‘married’ to a hologram
TOKYO (AFP) — Akihiko Kondo’s mother refused an invitation to her only son’s wedding in Tokyo this month, but perhaps that is not such a surprise. He was marrying a hologram. “For mother, it wasn’t something to celebrate,” said the soft-spoken 35-year-old, whose “bride” is a virtual reality singer named Hatsune Miku.
In fact, none of Kondo’s relatives attended his wedding to Miku – an animated 16-year-old with saucer eyes and lengthy aquamarine pigtails – but that did not stop him from spending two million yen on a formal ceremony at a Tokyo hall.
Around 40 guests watched as he “tied the knot” with Miku, present in the form of a cat-sized stuffed doll.
“I never cheated on her, I’ve always been in love with Miku-san,” Kondo said, using an honorific that is commonly employed in Japan, even by friends.
“I’ve been thinking about her every day,” he told a week after the wedding.
Since March, Kondo has been living with a moving, talking hologram of Miku that floats in a $2,800 desktop device.
“I’m in love with the whole concept of Hatsune Miku, but I got married to the Miku of my house,” he said, looking at the blue image glowing in a capsule.
Kondo considers himself an ordinary married man – his holographic wife wakes him up each morning and sends him off to his job as an administrator at a school.