The best type of friends are free.
Shoji Morimoto (39) has been hired for more than 4,000 jobs since he started his own “rental human resources” business in 2018, and until recently was getting paid to “do nothing.”
But now the creative entrepreneur has revealed that he has stopped charging clients for their time together.
“We are starting a service called “People who do not rent.'' (Morimoto) Posted At X in September.
“Please use it in situations where one person is required to be present, such as in shops that are difficult to enter alone, adjusting the number of people at a game, and reserving a spot for cherry blossom viewing.It is free of charge.”
Clients now have the luxury of being able to grace them with Morimoto's presence by simply refunding Morimoto's travel expenses and food and beverage expenses consumed during the meeting.
Unfortunately, those looking for deep conversations and building personal relationships are out of luck.
“I can only give a very simple response,” the Japanese businessman wrote in the post.
The reason for the change in business strategy stems from Morimoto's own self-interest, simply because it's fun for him, he revealed in his recently published memoir:Rental person who does nothing”
According to Business Insider, he wrote in his book that “'do-nothing rentals' provide the same kind of passive entertainment, but in this case I'm the provider, not the consumer.” ing.
Morimoto charged approximately $68 per session, or 10,000 yen, to work with a variety of clients for various reasons.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, Morimoto revealed that he was earning nearly $300 a day.
Once the pandemic ended and lockdown restrictions eased, his business started to pick up.
Over the years, clients have hired him for everything from regular coffee meetings and social interactions to more bizarre sessions.
He recounted how he was once hired to watch wives explore the trenches of online dating sites to find husbands.
“She screamed every 10 minutes or so (as seen in the DMs). At one stage she made a mistake on the app and clicked 'like' on a guy she wanted to pass on. She was staring at her ceiling and she seemed very upset,” Morimoto wrote. business insider.
Despite this, he said he had “a great afternoon tea and really enjoyed it” during the meeting.
Morimoto also wrote that he once had to accompany a client to file divorce papers with the court.
Oddly enough, he is also hired to attend to customers at very personal moments.
He said that on one occasion he had to see a client depart from a train station, and on another occasion he met a client at the finish line of a marathon.
Despite being labeled a “new age gigolo” by critics, this savvy entrepreneur has boundaries when it comes to his clients.
For one thing, there's no sex.
Morimoto, who is married and has children, revealed in her book that she once turned down a customer who asked for sex.
Another no-no for him is pop concerts.
“I have turned down several invitations to go to pop concerts,” he writes.
“I don't know much about music. Most of the concerts I've been asked to go to have been by artists I've never heard of.”
He also turned down jobs such as moving refrigerators and traveling to Cambodia.
A self-described “introvert,” he hinted that being hired to provide companionship was a bit of a fit for his personality.
“The client wants to do something, so I just go along with it. No deep commitment is expected, no personality required,” he wrote in his memoirs.
One of his clients, Aruna Chida, 27, a data analyst from Japan, explained that she hired him at her company so she wouldn't feel the need to “entertain” him like a real friend. .
“When it comes to friends, I think you have to entertain them,” Senda said of Morimoto's service in 2022. “But I don't feel the need to chat with the rental people.”
“It's strange that people like Rental Person are in demand. You could say that my lack of individuality has become my 'product,'” Morimoto wrote.
