Rental Person Who Does Nothing

Starred review from October 15, 2023
An enjoyable exploration of how, sometimes, doing nothing can mean doing a great deal. At first glance, this is an odd book. However, there is undeniable poignancy, and even a thread of comedy, in a narrative that transcends cultural borders. As he recounts, Morimoto held several jobs that he disliked; when he thought about it, he realized that his favorite activity was doing nothing. Beginning with a tweet in 2018, he started a business where people could hire him to do, well, not much. The author chronicles many of the requests he has received: accompanying a woman who was filing divorce papers, having an ice-cream soda with a businessman, or visiting someone in the hospital. Some clients seek an anonymous confidant to tell a secret to, or simply a bit of quiet company for a few hours. Morimoto tries to be as innocuous as possible, nodding in agreement and making simple responses. He often does not charge clients for his mere presence--although he requests travel expenses--but if he performs a specific service, he charges a small fee. It provides enough money for him to live comfortably; more than that, he is satisfied with the life he is leading. He demonstrates how his "job" is a way of helping people, and since he started, he has been hired over 4,000 times. It makes one wonder if a similar service could help ease the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that is gripping the U.S. "I don't ever get fed up with my do-nothing role, and there's no stress," writes the author. "Why? I could come up with several answers to that, but the simplest one is that there's variety; the people and the situations are different every time." An eccentric, charming book, showing how humans can connect in the strangest of circumstances.

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November 13, 2023
This meditative debut from Morimoto reflects on what he’s learned about work and life from his “rental person” service. In 2018, he tweeted that he was starting a project in which he would show up for clients at designated times and places but would do virtually nothing once there “except give very simple responses,” charging only for travel and the “cost of food/drink (if applicable).” Requests began pouring in; Morimoto describes accompanying to dinner a woman who was tired of having men pay for her meals, listening to another woman who hadn’t come out to her friends talk about her girlfriend, and greeting at the airport a student hoping that a friendly face would mitigate the grief she anticipated upon returning to Japan for the first time since her grandmother died. Lamenting work’s outsize role in people’s lives, Morimoto reveals that his sister killed herself after “she didn’t get the job she wanted.” In serving as a rental person, Morimoto intended to push back against the notion that an individual’s value is tied to their productivity: “people have a value even if they do nothing.” The client anecdotes amuse and provide unexpectedly perceptive insights into the nature of work and individuals’ self-worth under capitalism. This is worth seeking out. Photos.

December 1, 2023

In 2018, when 35-year-old Morimoto left an unsatisfying job in Japan where his boss derided both his work and his personality, he decided to change careers, but it was hard to find the perfect fit. Inspired by a blog post by therapist Jinnosuke Kokoroya, who argued that people have value even if they do nothing, he developed a service in which he could be hired by strangers who simply needed someone to be there with them. For a fee and the reimbursement of costs, Morimoto will fulfill any request, as long as he doesn't have to "do" anything--the Rental Person can be hired to see someone off at the airport and wave goodbye, sit in the park and share a drink, or accompany a patron when they file divorce papers. Here he writes about his experiences as Rental Person and speculates about what his presence meant to the 4,000-plus people who've hired him so far. VERDICT A fascinating and oddly endearing memoir.--Rebecca Mugridge

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December 1, 2023
Shoji Morimoto raises questions about work, productivity culture, and companionship in this unique account of his service called "Do-nothing Rental." In 2018, stressed by his job, Morimoto tweeted that he was "available for any situation in which all you want is a person to be there." All he asked was compensation for food and transportation. The service took off, and he found himself going to Starbucks to share a drink, greeting a traveler at an airport, and thinking of someone going through a hard time. Most often, people who contact him just need someone to listen to them. Morimoto's service may seem eccentric to some, but his protest against productivity culture came about in part after seeing his siblings struggle with societal expectations around work and success. He created Do-nothing Rental to demonstrate that "people have a value even if they do nothing." His book, which has already inspired a TV spin-off in his native Japan, prompts readers to think of a time when all they wanted was someone to be present with them.

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