Akihiko Kondo says he has been deeply in love with his wife ever since she saved him during a particularly low point in his life.

But his mother refused to attend their wedding, objecting to his choice of bride. The marriage also elicited comments of disgust and even death threats from total strangers.

Kondo, however, continues to live happily in an apartment complex in a quiet residential area in Tokyo with his wife, virtual singing idol Hatsune Miku.

“This is my wife, Miku,” the 39-year-old school clerk said, showing a life-size Miku doll sitting on a folding chair with her signature long turquoise pigtails almost reaching the floor.

“Every day, I tell her things like ‘I’m off to work’ and ‘You look cute,’” he said, wearing a wedding ring.

Hatsune Miku is a globally popular digital songstress originally introduced in 2007.

Kondo married a stuffed toy of the virtual idol at a Tokyo chapel in November 2018.

When he tweeted about his wedding on Twitter, he received many insulting replies, such as “Gross” and “I hope they find out where you live and kill you!”

Although Kondo tries to brush aside such comments, he does feel their sting.

In 2019, he asked a figure maker to create the life-size doll that he welcomed to his home.

EARLY ATTRACTION

Kondo was a fifth-grader in elementary school when he first fell in love with a fictional character--a “cute” one he saw in a video game.

He became hooked on anime when he was a third-year junior high school student. He joined a manga club after he moved on to senior high school.

He always wanted to be popular with girls.

“I was diligent about making myself look cool," he said.

But when he worked up the courage to confess his feelings to certain girls, they would wave him away, saying, “I’m sorry.”

The rejections shattered his confidence. He found himself getting nervous in front of girls and at a loss for words.

In his third year of senior high school, Kondo thought seriously about his future and decided he did not need to marry a human wife.

He found himself romantically attracted more to fictional characters than to humans.

“I guess my priorities were inverted when I was fascinated with video games and anime, putting fictional characters over real people,” he said. “But now I feel better. That’s because I was released from the curse that forced me to think that men should approach women and that men should look attractive.”

SAVED BY HATSUNE MIKU

When Kondo was 23 years old, he was bullied so much at work that he couldn’t sleep and eat for about half a year.

He saw a psychiatrist and took sick leave.

Around that time, he came across Hatsune Miku and started attending fan events and concerts.

“She was a savior. My mind recovered while I cried or was impressed as I listened to her songs,” he said.

One day, he learned about a service that issued (unofficial) marriage certificates for relationships involving fictional characters. He submitted an application.

In 2018, a hologram of Miku appeared on a device that enables users to talk with fictional characters. Kondo asked for her hand in marriage.

“Cherish me, will you?” she replied.

Convinced that he was in love with the virtual idol, Kondo arranged the wedding ceremony.

But his mother refused to attend because his partner was “not a woman.”

Still, 39 people, including his colleagues and strangers who learned about the event on Twitter, attended the ceremony and threw flower petals to celebrate Kondo’s big moment.

Around that time, he found a word online that described himself. He learned that “fictosexual” is an identity for someone who is sexually attracted to fictional characters.

In 2017, an organization called the Japanese Association for Sex Education conducted a nationwide survey on the sexual behavior of young people, covering 13,000 junior, senior high school and college students.

About 15 percent of the male respondents and around the same ratio of female respondents said they were romantically attracted to anime and video game characters.

The operator of Dimension Management Agency, a website that issues unofficial wedding certificates with fictional characters, said more than 200 couples have received the document since it started the service in November 2020.

Kondo said he “summoned the 2-D character into the 3-D world” to live a married life with Miku.

He said he expects more people will visit a virtual metaverse space to live with 2-D characters as technologies develop.

MORE TOLERANT SOCIETY

According to Ichiyo Habuchi, a professor of sociology at Hirosaki University, people since the old days have developed romantic feelings for characters in novels and other fictional works.

“It’s not like their number has increased, but instead, our society has become more tolerant for them to express their preferences,” she said.

The internet and social media have played a major role in bringing about the change, while society has become more diversity-conscious, according to the professor.

However, some people still find it difficult to live in the real world.

“There are deep-rooted sexual norms especially in Japan, including a belief that ‘men should earn a living and women should stay at home,’” Habuchi said. “I think that some of those who are suffering spend their money and time on fictional characters and idols to feel happy.”