This is the story of a 60-year old unemployed man who lived in the beautiful city of Izu in central Japan. One day in August, he decided to radically break up with his “girlfriend”, actually a life-sized sex doll he lived together with for years, by dumping her in the woods near his home.

About two weeks later, the “body” was discovered by two hikers who panicked and called the police. Several policemen rushed to the “murder scene”, investigated revealing traces, supposedly even interviewed witnesses and launched a murder investigation.

The problem: The doll looked so lifelike that the pathologists were the first to realize the body found in the woods isn’t human. According to Japanese media, police is likely to impose a fine on the now single man for breaking the national Waste Avoidance and Management Law.

I picked up this story (that is currently all over the Japan-related blogs) especially to appeal to John Biggs: No, this is not common in Japan and guys who replace real women with plastic (like the one you can see in the video above) ARE considered “special” in this country as well.