Good to know there are employment prospects for me if I ever decide to move to Japan.
'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
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Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#12If you think about it, it's a bit surprising how many people, you think, couldn't do his job.
This and similar support jobs (mental health type jobs) are probably the hardest jobs in the world. Not only for the person doing it, but the requirements for such a thing are just astronomical and not really something you can learn. You can learn aspects of it, but to excel it requires a certain type of person.
apparently one of the things people hire this guy for is just to wave goodbye when they move away. I agree not just anyone could do that in an appropriately sensitive way, but to say the requirements are astronomical seems like an overstatement.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#13Ultimately, perhaps some of these people are really looking for a therapist.
I 've seen people react with a "oh so wacky japan" attitude when something like this pops up. But I agree with you, this is nothing more than a form of therapy.
> Another reflected, "I had been slack about visiting the hospital, but I went because he came with me."
I have seen multiple people be much more eager and diligent in taking a pet to the vet, than taking care of theirselves (due to fear, shame, and an if you ignore it long enough mentality) this hits hard.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#14People in Japan sometime rent out actors to act as parents, lovers, relatives, etc at weddings, marriage interview, and other occasions. This is nothing new.
Turns out the most famous article about this was based on a hoax: https://newrepublic.com/article/160595/new-yorker-japan-rent...
"If Japan’s family rental phenomenon is “well documented,” as The New Yorker claims, it is not well documented in the article itself. Despite describing a “wave” of rental families beginning in the 1980s, and noting their prevalence in literature and movies, there is no concrete sense of how many people have actually used these services. Other recent articles about the phenomenon almost invariably cite Family Romance, which appears to have been thoroughly discredited. As Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times noted, “[W]hile it’s unclear it provides ‘family rental’ services on any significant scale, it did run a wildly effective media campaign, feeding false anecdotes to outlets looking for a wacky story.”"
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#15People in Japan sometime rent out actors to act as parents, lovers, relatives, etc at weddings, marriage interview, and other occasions. This is nothing new.
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Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#16I've been renting hundreds of people who do nothing for years. From Capgemini. Nothing Japanese about it!
Can you tell us more about how you’ve been using this service?
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#17すごいね。存在するだけで、お金をもらえる。
酸素を吸って、二酸化炭素を吐いて、給料を稼げる。
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#18A friendly reminder that Japan's rent-a-family industry was completely fake: https://newrepublic.com/article/160595/new-yorker-japan-rent...
Everyone loves stories about how weird Japan is (especially the Japanese), so these stories should be taken with a grain of salt.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#19Once again Mike Judge accurately predicts the future: "Michael? I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing and it was everything that I thought it could be." - Peter Gibbons, Office Space (1999).
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#20Ultimately, perhaps some of these people are really looking for a therapist.
While that meets the definition of "person that does nothing", but is not the cheapest alternative. That person has student loans to pay off.