Paying Someone to Dump Your Partner Is Now a Thing in Japan
Breakups suck. Saying the words out loud sucks even more. In Japan, some people have decided they’d rather pay someone else to do the dirty work.
A service called Imasugu Sayonara (“Immediate Goodbye”) will call your boyfriend or girlfriend and end the relationship for you. The fee is 33,000 yen — roughly $200. That’s it. You don’t have to see their face, hear their voice, or sit through the “can we talk?” conversation.
The company launched in June 2026. In about three months it got more than 1,000 inquiries and closed almost 300 jobs. Most clients are women in their 20s and 30s, though men use it too.
Founder Nakakura Hidemichi started it after helping a friend get away from a violent boyfriend. The early cases were often safety-related. Now a growing number of clients just don’t want to be the one who says it.
How it actually works
You contact them on LINE, they interview you about the relationship and why you want out, then you send the partner’s name, number, and a preferred time. After you pay, they start calling.
They’ll try up to five times because a lot of people ignore unknown numbers. If that fails they switch to a DM or a letter. Once the message is delivered, the job is done.
When the dumped person asks why their partner didn’t just call themselves, staff usually say the client wanted a clean break and was worried the conversation would drag on. Nakakura says most people on the receiving end accept that explanation. Some get angry. Others put on a brave face and claim they were already thinking about ending it anyway.
Who’s using it
One woman in her 20s from Kanagawa had been dating a guy she met on an app for less than six months. They agreed to delete the apps. Then a notification popped up on his phone while they were together. His response: “So what?” She didn’t want to see him or even let him hear her voice again. The operator told him she never wanted contact and that she had already blocked him everywhere. She paid, blocked him, and later met someone new.
A guy in his early 20s used it because he’d fallen for someone else after a year-long relationship. He said telling his girlfriend himself would make him too sad. The operator delivered a straightforward apology and the reason: he’d found someone else, so please let him go as of today.
Nakakura compares it to resignation-proxy services that help people quit jobs without having the awkward conversation with their boss. Same logic: people who don’t necessarily hate their current situation but have found something (or someone) they like better, and just feel too awkward to say it themselves.
What they won’t do
They turn down married couples and people who have already done a formal engagement ceremony (yuinō). Ending those relationships can trigger claims for emotional-damages money (isharyō), and they don’t want to get involved in that. They also refuse anyone whose partner looks connected to organized crime.
This is different from the old-school “wakaresaseya” agencies that get paid to sabotage someone else’s relationship — often by planting an operative. Those jobs are murkier, sometimes don’t even work, and have landed people in serious legal trouble. Imasugu Sayonara is just delivering your message in your relationship.
There are pricier versions of the same idea. One service called WAKAREYO charges 248,000 yen for a basic plan and 540,000 yen for an “emergency” version that includes counseling. Freelancers on gig sites also offer breakup-talk services.
The bigger picture
Japan already has a whole industry of people who will do the uncomfortable conversation for you — quitting your job, telling your family something, even renting relatives for events. Direct confrontation can feel like you’re breaking the group harmony. Paying a third party keeps the surface polite.
Whether that’s healthy or just another way to avoid growing up is another conversation. For now, if you really can’t bring yourself to say “it’s over,” someone in Japan will say it for you. For 33,000 yen.