They also serve who only stand and wait.
'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
151–160 of 244 posts
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#152The title reminds me of the Japanese strip Rent-a-Girlfriend , and how much it, and several similar ideas coming from Japan seem to express how lonely many of it's citizens might be feeling. Japanese commerce seems to have found a rather big market into treating loneliness. From the existence of Host Clubs, bars where the menu is not only food, but a good conversation with one's designated “host” as well, to cafés w…
> he's unbelievably socially awkward and not in a way that derives humor from it, but is meant to invoke a sense of relatability Media does usually exaggerate the traits they're attempting to highlight, whether it's bravery or social anxiety. Most people, even if they are popular and charismatic, still feel awkward and anxious sometimes. As much as we talk about how different people are, in some ways we're all the sa…
Yes, but it's still remarkable how common in Japanese fiction the socially awkward, uncomfortable protagonist, meant to be relatable to the audience is.
The protagonist of The 40 Year old Virgin is unique for it, and the series is not meant for 40 year old virgins.
There is a surprisingly high amount of fiction from Japan that follows a formula similar to this:
- The protagonist is socially awkward and nervous, but otherwise has no actual opinions or character traits
- The protagonist starts the story rather lonely
- The protagonist fairly quickly finds friends, lovers, family, who are very devoted to him
- Bonus points for the protagonist being transported to a parallel universe to escape the dreads of social pressure of Japanese office worker life completely — this specific plot device is oddly common.
It feels as if one play a first person corridor shooter with a silent protagonist, but it's a book or television series: the protagonist is dragged along with the plot but somehow does not influence it and barely speaks or has opinions: the point is for the reader to mentally replace the protagonist with himself, and experience the story from his own perspective, so he can feel less lonely, just as such video games have a big element of making the player feel like an action hero, but the power phantasy sold here is simply “no longer being lonely”.
It's really an oddly big market for such a seemingly quite specific thing. Rent-a-Girlfriend consistently ranks within the top 25 of strip volume sales in Japan, and it's plot is really little more than “Lonely, socially awkward young adult is now less lonely.”.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#153> "I get upset when people simply tell me keep on trying. When someone is trying to do something, I think the best thing to do is to help lower the bar for them by staying at their side" This is brilliant.
Nobody that I seek advice for in online communities seems to understand this. Too often I know I'm doing it wrong, and I get told back the equivalent of "well, because you're doing it wrong. What did you expect?" I keep thinking that just sharing a room with someone that ignores me and just does exactly what it is I'm trying to do would be ten times more helpful than being picked apart for all my flaws (which I under…
I hear what you are saying.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason I say this is because I think the world is a tough competitive place whether we act like it or not. It doesn't have to be, though. I guess the individuals featured in such stories are the change they want to see in the world.
Sorry, but LOL. You can't opt out of competition any more than you can opt out of gravity. If you aren't "strong" enough to do the hard work, someone else in your town will do it and reap the rewards while you become irrelevant. If your whole town opts out, some other part of the country will do it while your town drifts away into irrelevance and poverty. If the whole country opts out, some other young and hungry cou…
> You can't opt out of competition any more than you can opt out of gravity.
Perhaps not as an individual, but I wonder about as a society - I don't know how we would get to this point, but imagine the sheer potential we as a culture could unlock by moving to a more cooperative model; consider the billions upon billions of person-hours wasted on things like stock trading, internal politicking, and marketing/advertising: all the things that provide no value to the race, but "required" to facilitate interpersonal competition.
Of course, none of that is against your primary point, which is that hard work is still, on the whole, required. It just irritates me to see competition equated to a law of nature; we're not animals, we can choose whether and how competition applies.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many languages do you speak to confirm this idea? Do you speak Pashto enough to know that Afghanistan does not take the crown in this, for instance? Do you speak Danish enough to know that Denmark also participates?
First you say "western" usually means the US, someone disagrees and now you demand they speak Pashto and Danish? Come on.
How would that logic be faulty?
For him to confirm his claim that it is a specifically “western” thing to treat Japan so in news sources, he has to speak a variety of both “western" and “non western" languages to truly ascertain that trend.
He must both confirm that it happens in “western” news sources of many different countries, as well as that it doesn't happen in ”non western” news sources.
One would have to speak a considerable number of languages to claim sufficient expertise in world news reporting to make this claim.
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jokes like these are literally not allowed on HN.
At the risk of getting too meta, the words "joke" "funny" and "humor" don't appear on the HN Guidelines[0] page at all. Nothing in there about staying 100% serious 100% of the time. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I mean, the second sentence of the "In Comments" section:
> Be kind. Don't be snarky.
In this case it's snarking at the consulting company, but is that alright because they're not actually involved in the story or thread?
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. Firstly, love hotels are a sign of not being lonely. They do not offer a prostitute; those batteries are not included Secondly, I do not gain the impression from that that all do it, merely tha…
> Firstly, love hotels are a sign of not being lonely. My observation from travel is that love hotels are a sign of multigenerational housing. Young adults need somewhere to go without their parents watching.
In my home country you can rent actual apartments in completely normal buildings by the hour or by the night. Everyone knows for what purpose.
They're actually cheaper and nicer than hotels, so if you're not icky, it's a cheap way to stay in the country ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, but LOL. You can't opt out of competition any more than you can opt out of gravity. If you aren't "strong" enough to do the hard work, someone else in your town will do it and reap the rewards while you become irrelevant. If your whole town opts out, some other part of the country will do it while your town drifts away into irrelevance and poverty. If the whole country opts out, some other young and hungry cou…
> You can't opt out of competition any more than you can opt out of gravity. Perhaps not as an individual, but I wonder about as a society - I don't know how we would get to this point, but imagine the sheer potential we as a culture could unlock by moving to a more cooperative model; consider the billions upon billions of person-hours wasted on things like stock trading, internal politicking, and marketing/advertisi…
Sure, I agree with that. There is plenty of cooperation in the world, when two strong parties come together and say "this will work out better for us if we do it together."
My main point and I think you agree, is that you can never get there from a position of weakness and laze. No one is going to throw in their lot cooperating with you if your ethos is to "do nothing" or if you aren't functioning as an adult (whether an adult individual or an adult nation/country.)
Re: 'Rent-a-person who does nothing' in Tokyo receives endless requests, gratitude
#159I 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, ver…
I think there is another level to what this guy is doing that's hard to see if you just believe what he says about himself on its face. I feel like to be able to listen to and or be with someone while they do whatever and have no judgement, criticism, or suggestion requires you to have a very high level of Zen. I would probably want to correct or assist or do something in most situations. He's operating on the level…
I actually agree with that, I do think therapy and "getting things out of your head" are incredibly valuable. I don't have a problem with this guy - basically he found a way to make money doing what capitalism has deemed a valuable service so he's OK in my book. He's working and building.
My problem is more with the cultural ethos and the vibe of this story and what it and stories like it appear to celebrate or at least normalize.
This headline should have been "enterprising Japanese man builds a service and earns a good living satisfying the needs of others that they value and pay for" :)