A New Sexual Frontier? Men Who Live With Dolls Share Their Stories

Like a couple of two human beings

“While I was interviewing people who have romantic relationships with animals for my previous book, I began to think, ‘There must also be people who love things without life.’ Around that time, sex robots had just gone on sale in the U.S. and were causing a stir. So I went there and started researching.”

In 2019, nonfiction writer Chihiro Hamano (48) made a sensational debut by winning the 17th Kaikō Ken Nonfiction Award for her book Holy Zoo (Shueisha), which depicted humans who form sexual relationships with animals. In her newest book, Inorganic Lovers (Kodansha), Hamano portrays the lives of people who love lifeless robots and dolls. These individuals dress their beloved dolls in clothes and wigs, and apply makeup to them. It’s a theme as shocking as her previous work, but Hamano recalls that the people who love dolls lived just like human couples.

“For example, the American man Davecat (pictured above) has lived with his doll wife for 25 years. He named her Sidore, and he talks to her right in front of me. He’ll put his hand on her knee and say, ‘How many years ago was that, honey?’ Of course, Sidore doesn’t speak. At first it was bewildering, but as I listened to their conversation unfolding before my eyes, it really did look as though a quiet wife were nodding in response to her husband’s question.”

A civil servant who married Hatsune Miku

All of the couples Hamano interviewed had sexual relationships with their dolls.

“Everyone I met had sex with their dolls as an act of love. The dolls were not merely objects for sexual release.”

Hamano adds that people who love inanimate partners tend to share an unexpected trait.

“A lot of them are financially well-off. Dolls cost at least 300,000 yen, and can exceed 600,000 yen. Then there are the costs for clothing and makeup. Without a certain level of economic stability, having a romantic relationship with a doll is difficult.”

The way people love their dolls varies slightly from person to person. Hamano broadly divides them into husband types and fetishist types.

“Those I categorized as husband types treat the dolls they live with as their wives. They give the dolls names, eat meals with them, celebrate their birthdays, and even take them on trips.

On the other hand, the fetishist types see dolls as beautiful sculptures. For them, dolls are sexual objects, and unlike the husband type, they don’t take them out or do daily-life activities together. One man told me, ‘I’ve never had sex with a woman as perfect as this. Nothing is as perfect as a doll.’”

Through interviewing people who love dolls, Hamano came to one important realization: “People who love dolls are not running away from real human relationships.”

“One person I met, Akihiko Kondo (pictured third), became famous after marrying Hatsune Miku, a two-dimensional character. At the time, people criticized him harshly, saying, ‘He’s just escaping reality.’ But in truth, Kondo works a regular job as a civil servant while living as Miku’s husband. He functions perfectly well in society.

In fact, he told me, ‘After I married Hatsune Miku, I gained new friends.’ There are also people who love dolls but simultaneously have sex with human women. And more recently, there are cases where people become absorbed in conversations with ChatGPT and develop romantic feelings. If AI continues to evolve, and dolls capable of walking and speaking are created, I believe romances between humans and robots will only increase.”

The people Hamano depicts—those who love inanimate beings—may be early pioneers of a new kind of romantic relationship that will become common in the near future.

From the November 7, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”