Grandma, It's Just A Doll

By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Think you're lonely? A $65 doll that complains, catches cold and demands Christmas presents has a fanatic following in Japan--among grownups. Primo Puel, the computerized toy, develops a "personality" based on how it's treated, bleating out 285 phrases in the voice of a 5-year-old boy. Japanese toy giant Bandai first marketed the doll to children. Instead, says a spokeswoman, 70% of the 800,000 sold have gone to women ages 40 and older--"grandparents, childless couples, single-child families."

Etsuko Kashiwagi, 47, has 16 of them. She buys the dolls clothing and toys, and she and her husband take them on trips, posting on their website pictures of the dolls at the Eiffel Tower and Mount Fuji. "We're not crazy people," she insists. With their son in college, "we just find comfort in these dolls, as others might in their pets." Like-minded Primo owners take their "kids" on field trips and play dates; there's even a Primo hospital for adorable ailments like "hemorrhoids" (busted batteries). Yearning for the companionship of a robotic noodge? Too bad. Bandai recently launched the dolls in France and South Korea but has no plans yet to bring them to the U.S. --By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. With reporting by Toko Sekiguchi

With reporting by Toko Sekiguchi