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

mainichi.jp

201–210 of 244 posts

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

#201

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, ver…

Everybody knows the world is a horrible, heartless, unfair place. They do when they visit their dying relatives in the hospital, when they go through gut wrenching legal proceedings with a person they once loved, when their boss tells them they're worthless. We all crush through harsh realities on the daily, having someone by your side doesn't make you weak. There is nothing to "normalize", if anything the abnormal thing is that we strayed from it to a culture that pretends the individual is all powerful, a masturbatory illusion of absolute self-reliance.

Grit will help you right up until you jump off a bridge. Very few people succeed through sheer tyranny of will, most do because they have a support network that helps them survive.

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

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used underwear vending machine, last I heard, there's only one. Yaoi cafe, AFAIK, there's only one. And I would be surprised if there's more than one cafe with the glass floor and no underwear.

Well, you seem to be wrong about all three: https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-ikebukuro... This article reviews three different boy's love cafés, in close proximity to one another. I'm not sure how derive the conclusion that there is only one used underwear vending machine; a simple image search reveals many different models: https://www.techinasia.com/japan-used-panty-vending-machines... This artic…

> https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-ikebukuro...

Of the 3, only the first one is overtly Yaoi. I don't know the second one, but it doesn't seem like one, and the Butler cafe is definitely not Yaoi.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-pan_kissa

After the boom in the 80s (30+ years ago), are there really any left, with the glass floor and everything?

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

#203
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started questioning the western narrative about Japan when I learned that the fertility and suicide rates are actually worse in my country. Turns out a lot of "exotic" problems in this country are all too familiar.

As long as people don’t ruin my view of Germany being the EU version of Japan kinky preferences and all

Leaving the sex out of it, a common statement is that England is the Japan or Europe.

There are actually remarkable similarities in culture which are possibly influenced due to both being iland states.

https://bccjacumen.com/uk%E2%80%93japan-closer-than-you-thin...

These do not dive all that much into sexual media however. The Anglo-Saxon is infamously sexually traditional and repressed, and the Englishman second only to the Australiaman. Australia recently actually banned the import of Japanese pornography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDmbo5dxgQg

He's wrong, however — Eromanga Sensei is far from the worst. I would love for him to take a stab at Night Shift Nurses or Aki-Sora — the latter so amazing that even Tokyo itself made laws to contain it's carnal sins against mankind.

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

#205
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Family Romance is the company GP's article is about. It may not be entirely fake, but the stories that made the news were. (and both your links are about that company)

Yes, it is the company cited in the article. It is very real and provides very real services: How to Rent Friends in Japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jag6iyrSjsI Rental families to heal lonely souls in Japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OURBpPLewoU We Rented A Girlfriend In Japan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLBNO33bMX0 Behind Japan's Fake-Family Industry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhYMirs7fk

You'll have to admit it's hard to take any of these seriously when they are all about the same company that has been reported to embellish things to put it mildly. Well, except for Max D. Capo's, he used a different service.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Well, in the US at least a vet is significantly less expensive.

Depends on what you need. I just paid three times more to get my dog a flu shot than it would have cost me to get for myself without insurance.

I agree, though, that doctors for non-humans are generally cheaper than those for humans.

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

#207
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Japan's rent-a-family industry was completely fake That's really not what that article is claiming. It's claiming that a particular individual has lied about the industry and made it seem stranger than it actually is and the western media has sensationalized that even further. There absolutely are rental services for boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, etc. in Japan, they're just not as bizarre as some of th…

Separately, I've heard personal reports and seen a documentary about young Japanese men in general. It was said that their mothers do everything for them and for a much longer time than other countries. Is this true?

The word you are looking at is "amae" ... along with a large amount of material about it (and how it is interpreted and how it is misinterpreted).

The classic book on the subject is "The Anatomy of Dependence" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Dependence

The gist of this is that the parent-child relationship is the ideal one and that extends into the relationships in a collectivist society including that of a manager to an employee.

And so the doting mother to her child... extends a bit longer. The doting mother part isn't new - but rather that that relationship is seen as the ideal one... gets into cultural comparisons.

... but that's the word that can set you on the search for understanding of that phenomena.

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

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used underwear vending machine, last I heard, there's only one. Yaoi cafe, AFAIK, there's only one. And I would be surprised if there's more than one cafe with the glass floor and no underwear.

Well, you seem to be wrong about all three: https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-ikebukuro... This article reviews three different boy's love cafés, in close proximity to one another. I'm not sure how derive the conclusion that there is only one used underwear vending machine; a simple image search reveals many different models: https://www.techinasia.com/japan-used-panty-vending-machines... This artic…

You also need to understand a bit of Japan. Ikebukuro is the womens/girls Akiba. So it's really normal to see the oppoiste of Akiba there. There are countless cafes there that cater to females, where in Akiba it is male.

And akiba is short for akihabara.

The underwear vending machine are out, and hidden now, mostly Akiba from what I hear on whispers, not in public. Maybe even one in Nakano broaddway...

And Kissa's in general are in decline, not just no pantsu kissas.

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

#209

> "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.

> keep on trying

This is the over-used Japanese expression "頑張れ" (gan-ba-re). Low-EQ people (younger me) say it when they don't know how to comfort someone who just told them some sadness, worry, or frustration.

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

#210
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Japan's rent-a-family industry was completely fake That's really not what that article is claiming. It's claiming that a particular individual has lied about the industry and made it seem stranger than it actually is and the western media has sensationalized that even further. There absolutely are rental services for boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, etc. in Japan, they're just not as bizarre as some of th…

Girlfriend experience -escorts are also not that uncommon outside of Japan. Bars where one buys a good conversation along with the meal, cafés where the waiters roleplay as one's doting sibling, renting a parent, used underwear from vending machines, maid cafés, maid cafés where the maids are all cross-dressing males, cafés where the attractive male waiters make out with each other for the viewing pleasure of the…

> but the rest of the world that has nothing that comes close to this well-inspired madness.

I raise you the slightly hidden world of "tits on toast" from Australia. In regional cities/towns, you can go to certain local pubs early in the day (10AM - 12PM) and get a cheap breakfast served by topless waitresses.

If the waitresses get enough tips, they allegedly remove everything.

The breakfast is usually terrible (cold canned beans on toast with an egg).

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