Rental Person Who Does Nothing

by Shoji Morimoto

“Rental Person,” a Rental Person Who Does Nothing. At the time, I had 300 followers. Ten months later, I had 100,000.

the idea of “payment for being” which I saw in a blog written by health counselor Jinnosuke Kokoroya.

Things can be different simply because someone is there.

@morimotoshoji A request from someone who wanted me to think of them for a moment over the next couple of days. I read the request again and again, because I wasn’t sure I understood it. But I accepted it on the assumption that it really was just a matter of thinking of her. I let her know later that I’d done so and in her reply she said that it had had an effect—a response that provided both relief and a degree of worry.

I like to feel my work is fresh and meaningful,

rather than just re-hashing old questions, I always tried to think of new material.

Inevitably there are times when you end up with more stress than pay. That’s when I don’t want to do the work.

simplest one is that there’s variety; the people and the situations are different every time.

Depth of discussion and depth of relationship don’t always go hand in hand.

The fact that you’re very close to someone doesn’t mean you can necessarily open up to them. In truth, closeness quite often makes people keep their mouths shut.

talking to someone about one’s troubles means showing that person one’s weaknesses.

They have a story they have to tell and it’s my role to be there while they tell it.

Another reason why people ask me to listen to them seems to be that I don’t give advice.

Even positive responses like, “Great!” or “That’s interesting!” could put pressure on them.

Don’t judge me! I want to say. You don’t know anything about me.

I know they’re well-intentioned and that I’m being very unfair. But that doesn’t stop me thinking the way I do—it just makes me feel guilty about it.

avoid ever talking to people about my problems.

When that happens, I explain in advance that I can’t offer any advice—“advising” would be “doing something.”

do-nothing service can often have a catalyst effect. A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical process, without undergoing any change itself.

Having someone with you can have a similar effect.

Do-nothing Rental can be a catalyst that helps people get on with things.

With these “accompanying” and “watching” requests, my role is really, of course, just to be there.

My feeling is that by telling me they’d decided to tidy up the kitchen, they’d triggered a change in attitude, which enabled them to get it done.

writing a DM helped them control their thoughts, gave some order to the chaos, and perhaps made it easier to take action.

it was interesting to see the kind of ripple effect Do-nothing Rental can have through Twitter.

If I was asked what my dream is, I’d respond immediately: “Living without doing anything.”

when I listen to people sounding off about their grand dreams, I tend to be suspicious that they’re looking for praise.

My dream of doing nothing is already a reality, so in fact, it is a dream of keeping things as they are.

Why shouldn’t a dream focus on the here and now?

Why is there an assumption that it must be ab...

Perhaps I was supposed to make my presence felt by building a warm atmosphere—refilling

I suppose you could say my lack of individuality has become my “product.”

individuality can be divided into two sets of qualities: those that you have naturally—your face, body, voice and so on—and those that you acquire—special talents, communication skills.

purikura photo, which allows you to play around with your appearance.

Another advantage of the cap was that with a restricted field of vision I could be more introspective, hiding away in my own world.

the shop I happened to go into was called (mu, “nothing”) feels a bit like fate.

what I really want as Rental Person is to have no defining attributes—no good points, no bad points.

don’t want my identity to be defined by a set of abilities.

this is at the heart of this do-nothing service—I’d like the world to be one where even if people can’t do anything for others, even if they can make no contribution to society, they can still live stress-free lives.

When life doesn’t go according to plan, stress can take many different forms, particularly at their stage of life.

she had value simply because she was there.

People can die because of the stress of adapting to society. Or they can lose every ounce of their energy. I’ve

I never say I can do anything. And I don’t do anything.

I’ve made my choices in life by a process of elimination.

I’ve focused on what I can’t do rather than what I can; what doesn’t interest me rather than what does; what’s painful rather than what’s enjoyable.

When I am clear about what I don’t want to do, a plan falls into place.

People who talk clearly about what they dislike tend to be more interesting, focusing more on specifics.

Apparently, having told me about her condition, she’d found it easier to disclose it to people around her

by making decisions through elimination I’m limiting my own possibilities in life.

in the past it seemed to me there were too many possibilities.