[imagesource: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon]

In Japan, you can earn a decent living wage doing absolutely zilch.

At least one (un)ambitious smartypants has made doing “nothing in particular” his business.

Tokyo’s Shoji Morimoto has rebranded himself as a Rental-Do-Nothing-Man, which involves renting himself out to accompany people for whatever they want to do and wherever they want him to go.

The 38-year-old man charges 10 000 yen (R1 2oo) per booking, plus travel and food expenses, to simply exist as a companion.

Fortune notes that his Twitter bio reads: “I will lend you a person (me) who does nothing. I can’t do anything other than eating and drinking and answering very simple questions.”

At the moment he has just under 250 000 followers on the platform, which is where his service gets the most traction:

陽気なお店なのでめちゃくちゃでかいビール飲まされもした pic.twitter.com/Vfkt39JUgW

— レンタルなんもしない人 (@morimotoshoji) September 2, 2022

He spoke to Reuters and said he has managed to complete around 4 000 assignments over the past four years, which amounts to roughly $280 000 (more than R4,8 million) at his rate.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he managed to see three or four customers a day, but now it is around one or two a day:

「私の夏納めに付き合ってほしい」との依頼で手掴みシーフードの店へ同行。陽気な人が行きそうな店に行って今年の夏を締めくくりたかったそう。いろんなものを手でぐっちゃぐちゃにして食べたり🦞を豪快に解体したりして楽しんでた。陽気な店なだけあって僕もカニのカチューシャをつけさせられたりした pic.twitter.com/Fr9P9Yt9lZ

— レンタルなんもしない人 (@morimotoshoji) September 2, 2022

Morimoto used to work at a publishing company where he was often called out for “doing nothing”:

“I started wondering what would happen if I provided my ability to ‘do nothing’ as a service to clients,” he told Reuters.

“People tend to think that my ‘doing nothing’ is valuable because it is useful [to others]…But it’s fine to really not do anything. People do not have to be useful in any specific way.”

Now his job is to “be wherever my clients want me to be and to do nothing in particular”. Around 25% of his clients are repeat customers and one person has used his services 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.

Just because he does nothing, doesn’t mean he will do anything. Morimoto, a father and husband, does have some boundaries.

He said no to a would-be client who wanted him to move a fridge and another who asked him to go to Cambodia. He also does not take sexual requests.

Just recently, Morimoto sat opposite a 27-year-old data analyst dressed in a sari, having idle chit-chat over tea and cakes:

Watch: Shoji Morimoto, the 38-year-old #Tokyo resident, gets paid $71 per booking to do pretty much nothing, accompanying clients and simply exist as a companion.https://t.co/pi24Beo9X7 pic.twitter.com/dh1mbI4LBa

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) September 6, 2022

This sort of thing works well in a country like Japan, which has almost oppressively strict social rules with a population that is notoriously lonely as a result.

Besides the phrase “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” being drilled into people from a young age, Japanese folks also battle between what is called honne and tatemae daily.

“Honne” refers to a person’s true feelings and desires (本音, hon’ne, “true sound”) that are kept behind doors, and in contrast, “tatemae” refers to the behaviour and opinions one displays in public (建前, tatemae, “built in front”, “façade”).

Language lessons aside, you can see how that might create social pressure that many will do anything to escape, including spending a small fortune on getting someone to sit with them so that they can wear a sari without offending their friends.

[sources:fortune&reuters]