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'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

#101

Post by xyzelement »

I can't quite put my finger on how to define "this" but it seems like stories like "this" have been replacing stories of drive and grit in our cultural lore.

It's en vogue now to talk about "doing nothing" or making it sound normal that you need to hire someone you don't know to accompany you to visit the hospital, etc.

I am sure this is a part of the human experience but is it really a part we need to normalize, versus reconnecting with the culture of yesteryear of toughness, resilience, independence and productivity?

The reason I say this is because I think the world is a tough competitive place whether we act like it or not. There's a premium to be someone (and a nation of someones) who can deal with harsh realities and crush through adversity. Every society that got to "the top" got there because of this, and I suspect every society that declined did so because of overindulgence in decadence and weakness. We don't want that.

Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude

#102

Post by joe11 »

dialamac wrote: post #85
rchaud wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But who's 'the media' here? Occasionally you'll see a piece in a major publication about Japanese consumer trends or strange products that become big hits. More recently I've seen articles about the hikikomori (sp?) "lost generation" people that graduated just as the bubble burst 30 years ago. But the rest of the coverage is 'normal'; political, business and sports news. The only place I ever see "weird Japan" conten…

Case in point was already mentioned. The New Yorker is the outlet that ran with the bullshit rent a family story.

So lying Jewish scum, I'm not surprised.

Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude

#104

Post by pontifier »

I've had a fantastic boost in productivity lately due to paying some unemployed homeless people I know to watch me programming.

It's somewhere between rubber duck and pair programming. They might be learning a bit, and explaining things really keeps me on task.

Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude

#105

Post by closeparen »

ravenstine wrote: post #75
Karuma wrote: post #18

A 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.

Yeah if you just read all these articles about Japan, you'd think that all young men beat off to hentai all day at their parent's home, and that everyone is visiting "love hotels", or buys used panties from vending machines. The media loves to spin up an image of Japan to naive westerners by exaggerating its quirks. It reminds me of HN. If you read HN too much, you might think that you can only write applications in…

It would be extraordinary if young couples were having sex within earshot of their parents, or not at all. “Love hotels” seem like a pretty mundane adaptation to dating while living with family.

Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude

#106

Post by 1-6 »

Karuma wrote: post #18

A 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.

I think it only makes Japan a hotbed for interesting and new ideas. Don't start it up in Silicon Valley when you can get free press by doing it in Japan instead!

Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude

#107

Post by perennate »

lhorie wrote: post #98
scarmig wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/morimotoshoji Obviously the existence of the Twitter handle is just the first step in some kind of real verification. But it does confirm that, if it's a con, it's a long lived, dedicated one.

The pinned tweet explains the service. Auto-translation is a bit broken, but should translate roughly to this: "I'm starting a service called 'rental person who does nothing'. [For example] for stores where entering alone is difficult[0], for matching the number of players in a game, to hold a hanami[1] spot. Please only use it for cases where one person is needed. I charge 10,000 yen, plus transportation fare from K…

The translated tweet matches the impression I got from the article. The article didn't make me think that it is specifically a "listening service".

> "People rent him for various reasons. At times he will participate in a gaming session to make up numbers, turn up to send off people who are moving away, accompany those filing for divorce, or listen to health care workers who have become mentally unwell due to their exhausting work."

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