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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

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Disclaimer: I have been living in Japan for two years, but I'm nowhere an expert in their culture. Some of my female coworkers have confirmed this to be true. They say younger guys have problems finding a girlfriend, because they expect her to take care of him the same way his mother did, and younger Japanese women don't want to put up with that kind of attitude anymore. Regarding social development, my feeling is th…

> They say younger guys have problems finding a girlfriend, because they expect her to take care of him the same way his mother did, and younger Japanese women don't want to put up with that kind of attitude anymore.

This is rampantly common in (esp. Southern) Europe as well. The stereotype of the Italian or Greek "mama's boy" who can't do anything around the house and expects their SO to be their surrogate mother is very real.

I really don't think you should be using this as evidence to paint Japan as developmentally retarded as compared to "Western" countries. Respectfully, it comes off as parochial if I'm being charitable, or as working backwards from a desired conclusion if I'm not.

Moreover, this is a trend that crops up all around the world, not just in Japan or Europe. There are plenty of people like this in the US as well. I've met several grown men with well paying jobs who eat out for every meal and have their mothers do their laundry every weekend.

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

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida (of course), there was a place named "R Donuts" with topless waitresses.[1] [1] https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/11/27/Topless-doughnut-sho...

> Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Spends considerable time in a topless pancake restaurant if I remember correctly.

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

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: for many of the "weird" things you list, there's _one_ place doing it, not several, like the use of plural may suggest (AFAIK).

Such as which example? I have knowledge of the existence of multiple in almost all of what I listed.

Can you name a single no-panty cafe that's actually operating then?

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

#234

Earlier 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. 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…

Thanks, I was just about to comment on how the social trends coming out of Japan are quite disturbing. I hope it’s as exaggerated as you say.

Disturbing how exactly?

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

#235
post #228

Earlier 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…

> Everything we have is because we or our ancestors (whether literal ancestors or the people that built the countries we live in) did the hard work. 1) You can work hard in a non-competitive society. 2) That being said, hard work isn't -- contrary to what you seem to think -- inherently good. An industrialized genocide took place because my ancestors were diligent and hard-working. And I'd wager that a significant po…

I would sum up your point as this "necessary does not equate sufficient." Sure... Not only do we need to "do work" but we need to make sure it's helpful to us and our children. Obviously.

The fact that one could do useless or evil work isn't an argument against work. Just don't do dumb/evil shit.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I have been living in Japan for two years, but I'm nowhere an expert in their culture. Some of my female coworkers have confirmed this to be true. They say younger guys have problems finding a girlfriend, because they expect her to take care of him the same way his mother did, and younger Japanese women don't want to put up with that kind of attitude anymore. Regarding social development, my feeling is th…

> They say younger guys have problems finding a girlfriend, because they expect her to take care of him the same way his mother did, and younger Japanese women don't want to put up with that kind of attitude anymore. This is rampantly common in (esp. Southern) Europe as well. The stereotype of the Italian or Greek "mama's boy" who can't do anything around the house and expects their SO to be their surrogate mother is…

I don't know about Italy or Greece, but I was born and raised in Spain, which I guess is quite similar. Yes, young guys (and girls) who are used to their parents providing them everything and who don't even know how to cook an omelette or wash their clothes exist, but they are heavily looked down upon.

When I say Japan looks to me to be one or two generations behind, is because some of the things I see or hear here are the kind of situations my parents or grandparents got to experience when they were young. Not only what we already discussed, look also at the situation of women in the workplace, or LGBT rights.

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

#237

Ultimately, perhaps some of these people are really looking for a therapist.

I saw a lecture on psychology 101-- I think it was the free online one from Stanford-- where the professor said the main benefit of talk therapy is just having someone who cares about your problems for 45 minutes. So he what he is doing is therapy.

I'd say it's therapeutic in it's own, but most therapists try to do more.

For more info on therapeutic factors, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592639/ obligatory clickbait: you will be surprised!

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

#238

Ultimately, perhaps some of these people are really looking for a therapist.

The problem with therapists is that therapists tend to come of as a position of authority and that that, for many, makes them less effective. This man takes the position of a peer.

It highly depends on the 'school of therapy', there are approaches when therapists view themselves more of a 'fellow traveler/sufferer on the road of live' and less of an authority figure. And it's highly depends on the individual client and therapist.

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

#239
post #183

The 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…

I eat this stuff up as a constantly lonely person, not in the "I wish I had a boyfriend" sense, in the "theres nobody to talk to, ever" sense. Like you get up, you work, you consume entertainment, maybe you go on HN or Reddit or Twitter or whatever and you throw words out that other people filter through like junk food, maybe you even go so far to join a fan community for something for a week or two and talk about it…

It's not a perfect solution, but you could try online roleplaying games, like DnD (over discord).

Great way to meet a lot of friendly people and make friends.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> In regional cities/towns

In certain areas yeah, but painting all the regions with that brush is strange. Most of the country couldn't handle anything of the sort and the place would be raided by the police in a day. Despite how many pretend play it up to be, Australia is an incredibly conservative country.

The stuff you'll find in mining towns is far worse and basically the wild west. Barstaff will pour you out a beer using their bare asscheeks for a tip. Always wondered what the health authorities think of that.

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