Japanese man takes video game character as wife

The man, who prefers to use his online moniker SAL9000, met character Nene Anegasaki while playing dating simulation game "Love Plus".

They got married a few weeks ago, broadcasting their ceremony live on Japan's version of video-sharing website Youtube.

SAL9000, who did not want to reveal his real name for fear of being misunderstood, admits to be an "otaku", a breed of Japanese youth obsessed with video games, computers and fantasy worlds.

"In the Japanese otaku or nerd culture, there's a tradition of calling characters my wife, and I sort of thought of Nene as my wife. Since I was calling her that, I thought we'd just have to get married then," he told Reuters Television.

"If more people were to find ways of expressing themselves like this, I think it would make society a bit more interesting."

The newlyweds, who went on a honeymoon to Guam, now go on dates around Tokyo, with SAL9000 taking pictures of Nene, installed in his Nintendo DS, in front of famous landmarks and then posting them on social networking sites.

As the game "Love Plus" has voice recognition software, SAL9000 says it's possible to have a sort of conversation with Nene or even play simple games such as rock, paper, scissors.

He also has vowed to have and to hold, for better and for worse, even if another, updated version of the game is released.

"I think I'll probably continue playing Love Plus. I won't cheat," SAL9000 said. (Editing by Miral Fahmy)