'Basically, I rent myself out': Here's how this Japanese man gets paid to do nothing
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'Basically, I rent myself out': Here's how this Japanese man gets paid to do nothing
Shoji Morimoto, a 38-year-old Tokyo resident, charges more than a hundred dollars per booking to accompany clients and simply exist as a companion.
With a lanky build and average looks, Shoji Morimoto now boasts nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter, where he finds most of his clients. Roughly a quarter of them are repeat customers, including one who has hired him 270 times. Source: Reuters / Supplied
Shoji Morimoto has what some would see as a dream job: he gets paid to do pretty much nothing.
The 38-year-old Tokyo resident charges US$71 ($104.56) per booking to accompany clients and simply exist as a companion.
"Basically, I rent myself out. My job is to be wherever my clients want me to be and to do nothing in particular," Mr Morimoto told Reuters, adding that he had handled some 4,000 sessions in the past four years.
With a lanky build and average looks, Mr Morimoto now boasts nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter, where he finds most of his clients.
Roughly a quarter of them are repeat customers, including one who has hired him 270 times. His job has taken him to a park with a person who wanted to play on a see-saw.
He has also beamed and waved through a train window at a complete stranger who wanted a send-off.
Doing nothing doesn't mean Mr Morimoto will do anything. He has turned down offers to move a fridge and go to Cambodia, and doesn't take any requests of a sexual nature.
Last week, Mr Morimoto sat opposite Aruna Chida, a 27-year-old data analyst clad in a sari, having a sparse conversation over tea and cakes.
Ms Chida wanted to wear the Indian garment out in public but was worried it might embarrass her friends. So she turned to Morimoto for companionship.
"With my friends, I feel I have to entertain them, but with the rental guy (Morimoto) I don't feel the need to be chatty," she said.
Before Mr Morimoto found his true calling, he worked at a publishing company and was often chided for "doing nothing".
"I started wondering what would happen if I provided my ability to 'do nothing' as a service to clients," he said.
The companionship business is now Mr Morimoto's sole source of income, with which he supports his wife and child.
Although he declined to disclose how much he makes, he said he sees about one or two clients a day. Before the pandemic, it was three or four a day.
As he spent a Wednesday doing nothing of note in Tokyo, Mr Morimoto reflected on the bizarre nature of his job and appeared to question a society that values productivity and derides uselessness.
"People tend to think that my 'doing nothing' is valuable because it is useful (for others) ... But it's fine to really not do anything. People do not have to be useful in any specific way," he said.
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I missed my calling. LOL
Sounds like a story from The Onion.
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One can understand why he would want to get paid for doing nothing, but it is less easy to understand why people would pay someone simply to sit across the table from them. They must be desperate to never be alone (or seen as being alone).
It could have something to do with their degree of introversion. I am an introvert who did not understand my aversion to any and all social commitments until I learned it is just how my brain is wired. I am not shy. I just find personal interaction to be draining in a short time. This is why I like internet sites where I can participate on a level that I find comfortable. Sometimes I have to take long breaks from participation, but still read the news and do research on topics that interest me.
People can be really offended when you show up and leave their events before everyone else. Even though I understand why I have to leave, it is next to impossible to explain it to an extravert.
I can work happily with facts, figures and numbers. My preferred occupation was working with animals of the four-legged variety.
I am one of the people who can well understand why people would pay someone to simply sit across the table from them.
If an introvert doesnt want to be in a bar, I dont necessarily see how having a paid companion would change things. Youre still an introvert in a bar.
Introverts go to bars and other public venues. It is just the time is usually limited compared to extroverts.
Please read info at link I provided if you want to understand (at least in part) how the brain is wired differently for extroverts and introverts.
ok
He should have his own show on You Tube!
Good for him. Even with millions of people, sometimes people can feel alone.
And sometimes, millions of people are alone. Maybe by choice and maybe not.
US info from Dec. 2021.
People, with social anxiety, may find it therapeutic to pay someone just to sit quietly with them for short amounts of time.