New Delhi, Nov. 21 -- Ryuichi Ichinokawa's life could be right out of the movie "Rental Family" as the founder nearly two decades ago of the Heart Project business in Japan, which he bills as a surrogate attendance service complete with furnishing of extras and family members.

He has hired dozens of people to act like reporters with cameras and voice recorders, taking notes and milling with real journalists to fill up an otherwise rather vacant event. He has posed as the boyfriend of a woman who needs to discuss legal paperwork with her former spouse. And he has gone to a hospital as a stand-in husband for a woman getting fertility treatments.

"I am being of service to people. I hope they will be happy," said Ichinokawa, a dapper elderl...