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In fact, most of Akihiko’s family boycotted his nuptials to Hatsune Miku – a young pop singer with large blue eyes and turquoise hair.
But the bride probably didn’t mind as she only exists in the virtual world.
“For mother, it wasn’t something to celebrate,” Akihiko told Japan Times.
The ceremony – which cost him $18 000 (about R260 000) – was, however, attended by 40 other (real-life) guests.
His talking, moving hologram girlfriend, whom he’s been living with for eight months, is contained in a glass box, Reuters reports.
But on his big day Akihiko had a doll of her image made so he could exchange rings with his bride. The doll was dressed in a white wedding gown complete with veil, while the groom wore a white satin suit.
His virtual wife wakes him up in the morning, says goodbye when he leaves for his job as a school administrator, and switches on the lights in the evenings when he sends her a cellphone message saying he’s on his way home.
Akihiko says he realised at a young age a “crossdimensional” relationship was the ideal choice for him after he’d had a few nasty experiences with real girls. He says he’d been called an otaku – a derogatory Japanese term for geek – too many times.
READ MORE: Meet the wedding couples who made their geek wishes come true
Though his mother is pushing him to find a flesh-and-blood wife, Akihiko says he’s blissfully happy with his 3D spouse. And why not? She’ll never cheat on him and never age or die, AFP reports.
Though his marriage isn’t legally recognised, he does have a marriage certificate – issued by tech company Gatebox, Hatsune’s creators. The company has issued more than 3 700 of these certificates for crossdimensional weddings in Japan, where statistics show the number of unmarried men at age 50 has increased from one in 50 in 1980 to one in four today.
Sources: Japan Times, Reuters, AFP, Facebook
