When Ayumi Saito was 22 she broke up with her boyfriend. But the Tokyo resident found an easy way to fill the void left by her ex lover’s departure.

She downloaded a romance gaming app onto her phone, and became one of the millions of women in Japan to swap real life intimacy for a fantasy.

“I felt lonely,” says Saito, now 31. “Japanese men are shy and not good at flattering women. But girls want to hear ‘I love you.’”

The virtual boyfriends she found in games like “Metro PD: Close to You” — which sees a female detective discover a life-changing romance while fighting crime — did all the things her former partner hadn’t.

Saito is by no means unusual. In 2014, the romance gaming industry in Japan was worth US$130 million.

In a society where 44.2 percent of women — almost half of Japan’s millennial singles aged between 18 and 34 — are virgins, this industry has tapped into a deep desire for simulated intimacy in Japan.

Dating simulation apps first appeared in Japan in the 1980s. Known as “bishoujo” they would generally focus on a male protagonist pursuing pretty anime-style female characters.

In 1994, a team of female coders at Japanese gaming company Koei broke with tradition, launching the first romance game for women, “Angelique.” Based on the quest of a blonde teenage girl, who is a candidate to be the next “Queen of the Universe,” to choose her perfect suitor, it was wildly successful.

Japanese businesswoman Na-nako Higashi and her husband Yuzi Tsutani saw a niche in this lucrative sector. So, in the mid-2000s the duo pivoted their punk gaming business, Voltage, to cater to the female audience, debuting their first dating app for women “My Lover Is The No.1 Host” in 2006.

Today, Voltage is a world leader in female romance simulation apps, catering to female “otaku” — intense fans of popular culture, such as anime and manga — and other curious women.

“The strong and selfish men are the most popular,” says Higashi. “The most popular characters are strong on the outside and only sometimes sweet for you.”

来自东京的亚由美西户22岁时和男朋友分手了。但她发现了一个简单方法，能填补前任离开后的空虚感。

她下载了一款恋爱手游，成为数百万日本女性玩家中的一员，用幻想替代现实亲密关系。

今年31岁的亚由美西户说：“我感到孤独，日本男人很腼腆，也不会对女生说甜言蜜语。但女生想听到‘我爱你’。”

在恋爱游戏《Metro PD: Close To You》中，女侦探在探案时收获了一段改变人生的恋情。亚由美西户在这个游戏中找到了自己的虚拟男友，他能做所有她前任不做的事。

像西户小姐这样的女性不在少数。2014年，日本恋爱游戏产业的市值为1.3亿美元。

在日本，18至34岁的千禧一代单身人士中有44.2%的女性是处女，这几乎占了半数。恋爱游戏行业似乎正是利用了这一人群对虚拟亲密关系的强烈需求。

20世纪80年代，虚拟约会游戏首次在日本出现。这种“美少女游戏”的内容一般都围绕着一个男主人公对动漫美女角色的追求。

1994年，日本光荣公司的一群女程序员打破常规，推出了首款针对女性的恋爱游戏《恋爱天使》。这款游戏是为一名金发碧眼的少女寻找完美恋人，她是下一任“宇宙女王”的候选人。游戏大获成功。

日本女商人菜菜子和她的老公津谷从这个有利可图的行业看到了商机。因此，这对夫妇在2005年前后成立了Voltage公司，以迎合女性受众的另类游戏为其核心业务，并于2006年发布了其首款虚拟约会应用《我的爱人是第一男公关》。

如今，Voltage成了女性恋爱游戏的全球领先企业，为女性御宅族（动漫等流行文化的发烧友）和其他对此感兴趣的女性服务。菜菜子发现，“强势自私的男性角色最受欢迎，他们外表强悍，偶尔温柔。”(Chinadaily.com.cn)

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【利用】lìyòng tap into use or exploit a plentiful resource for one’s benefit

    【另类的】lìnglèi de punk aggressively unconventional, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans