3.5
Biographies
Need a rental person who does nothing?
Shoji Morimoto provides a fascinating service to the lonely and socially anxious. After an old boss told him that he contributed nothing and that it made no difference whether he showed up to work or not, he wondered if a person who ‘does nothing’ could still have a place in the world. With a tweet, his Rental Person service was born.
- Have a deep secret you desperately need to reveal, so deep that you can’t tell a friend or family member? - Have you spent a long time home alone, and want to know what it’s like to have somebody with you at your apartment? - Or for someone to simply think of you on a stressful day? Or wave to you as you leave the train station on a long journey?
Morimoto is dependable, non-judgmental and committed to remaining a stranger throughout each request, and his encounters are revelatory about both Japanese society and human psychology.
In Rental Person Who Does Nothing, Morimoto chronicles his extraordinary experiences in his unique line of work and reflects on how we consider relationships, jobs and family in our search for meaningful connection and purpose in life.
© 2023 Picador (Audiobook): 9781035012848
Translators: Don Knotting
Release date
Audiobook: 6 July 2023
3.5
Biographies
Need a rental person who does nothing?
Shoji Morimoto provides a fascinating service to the lonely and socially anxious. After an old boss told him that he contributed nothing and that it made no difference whether he showed up to work or not, he wondered if a person who ‘does nothing’ could still have a place in the world. With a tweet, his Rental Person service was born.
- Have a deep secret you desperately need to reveal, so deep that you can’t tell a friend or family member? - Have you spent a long time home alone, and want to know what it’s like to have somebody with you at your apartment? - Or for someone to simply think of you on a stressful day? Or wave to you as you leave the train station on a long journey?
Morimoto is dependable, non-judgmental and committed to remaining a stranger throughout each request, and his encounters are revelatory about both Japanese society and human psychology.
In Rental Person Who Does Nothing, Morimoto chronicles his extraordinary experiences in his unique line of work and reflects on how we consider relationships, jobs and family in our search for meaningful connection and purpose in life.
© 2023 Picador (Audiobook): 9781035012848
Translators: Don Knotting
Release date
Audiobook: 6 July 2023
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Overall rating based on 23 ratings
Thought-provoking
Inspiring
Cozy
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Tahoora
14 Jan 2024
Rental person who does nothing; a memoir by Shoji Morimoto got to be one of the easiest, short yet interesting read. It's about the authors current life where he does exactly as the book title suggests– he is an ordinary person in Japan (who quit his job) and now allows people to rent him (FOR FREE) to do nothing. All he has to do is show up and give the 'clients' a company. All they got to do is request him for it on Twitter and pay the transportation charges that took him to get to that particular requested place, that's it.He doesn't have any business model, he had quit his job and is living on his savings along with his wife and a toddler while he is busy renting himself out. And at first I thought he got to be one of the laziest person, and in a way he truly is, but I also understand his need to step back from the rat race in this world run by capitalism. Overall, it was a bit notorious but a strangely uplifting read 3.5/5
English
India