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Unhappily in love? Put Ladies Secret Detective Agency on the job

CrissCross Japan
February 8, 2006
Source: http://www.crisscross.com/jp/kuchikomi/394

No sooner does a need arise than a service springs up to answer it."Wakareya," for instance, hired by aggrieved spouses orboyfriends/girlfriends, specialize in breaking up adulterous relationships. They've been around for a while. A newer offshoot of the private detective industry, reports Dacapo (Fe. 15), are "fukuenya." The skills involved are much the same, but applied for a different, even opposite purpose. "Fukuenya" work to bring separated or estranged people back together again.

The fractured relationship needn't be sexual. Want to get back in touchwith a childhood best friend? Make up with the father who disinherited you? The experts who can make it happen are "fukuenya" such as the Ladies Secret Detective Agency, with head offices in Tokyo's Ginza. Nationwide the agency handles no fewer than 3,000 cases a year — enough for Dacapo to declare a "fukuenya boom" in progress.

As a typical case, the magazine introduces "S" and "K" — we'll call themShozo and Kayoko. They're both 29. Their affair began at the company they both work for. It blossomed. Everything was beautiful — "love-love," as the Japanese-English expression has it — until Shozo's chance meeting with an old friend named Yaeko turned Kayoko's life upside down.

"I want him back," Kayoko told Ladies Secret. She would get him, the agency assured her.

Step one: A female agent befriended Yaeko in order to find out what kind of man she liked.

Step two: A man answering the description she provided (a male agent, of course) appeared on the scene to sweep Yaeko off her feet. Compared with him, Shozo no longer seemed such a prize — a feeling subtly reinforced by the female agent in the role of sympathetic friend. Shozo, finding himself cold-shouldered, remembered Kayoko waiting in the wings. He called her. Their romance rekindled; soon it was back to "love-love mode." Meanwhile, what of Yaeko and the male agent? Are they also in love-love mode? Or does he dump her when the job's done? Dacapo doesn't tell us. We must leave it to them to work things out as best they can.

Ladies Secret's services do not end with the couple reunited. There's one more phase left — that of helping Kayoko understand why Shozo left her. Perhaps, in her over-confidence, she had been a little careless with regard to her personal appearance? Would a diet help? Or maybe a more stylish wardrobe? Professional advice of this kind is part of the deal.

"Fukuenya" do not come cheap. If you're thinking of engaging one, you must figure on a bill of 650,000 yen a month plus expenses, Dacapo says, with three months being the average duration of a case. On the other hand, Ladies Secret claims a success rate of 70% overall — highest if you consult them within six months of the breakup, lower if you're an older couple with years of rancorous buildup behind you.

If you're a young woman in search of a career, consider becoming a"fukuenya." Most "fukuenya" are women in their 20s, and the best of them, Dacapo says, earn no less than 67 million yen a year. With money like that at your disposal, when you're not busy patching up other people's lives, you can lead quite a life of your own.