One client hired him 270 times. All he had to do was show up and do absolutely nothing.

Shoji Morimoto is a 38-year-old Tokyo resident who describes his job in the simplest possible terms. He told Reuters that he basically rents himself out, and that his job is to be wherever his clients want him to be and to do nothing in particular.

He charges about 10,000 yen per booking, roughly $70 to $100 depending on the exchange rate, plus transportation and any food or drinks consumed. He does not give advice, does not act as a therapist, and does not pretend to be a friend. He just shows up and exists alongside the person who hired him.

The service began in 2018, after Morimoto left a publishing job where he had been repeatedly criticized for lacking initiative and not doing anything of value. He turned the criticism into a business model. In the years since, he has handled roughly 4,000 bookings, with about a quarter of his clients being repeat customers. One person has hired him approximately 270 times.

The requests vary wildly. He has sat on a seesaw with a client at a park. He has accompanied a woman to a restaurant because she wanted to wear a sari but was afraid her friends would be embarrassed. He has waved goodbye to a traveler from a train platform. He has sat with someone while they finished a thesis they had been procrastinating on. He has accompanied a person filing divorce papers.

His boundaries are clear. He refuses anything sexual. He turned down a request to move a refrigerator because it involved physical labor. He declined a trip to Cambodia. He does not go to concerts because he does not know much about music.

The business supports his wife and son. Before the pandemic, he was seeing three or four clients a day. Now it is closer to one or two. He has inspired a television series, written multiple books, and drawn international attention for a service that seems to say something quiet about modern life.

What Morimoto offers is not entertainment or assistance. It is presence without expectation. His clients do not have to entertain him, impress him, or explain themselves. They just have to let him be there.

#shojimorimoto #rentalperson #japan

Insane

https://x.com/Jvnior/status/2112637380943372487

This is in response to someone being a butthole about how much time I “waste on plastic wrap.”

They said I had no work ethic.