＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Recently, a freelancer from Osaka University who started a job as a “rental nothing man” (“Mr. Rental”) has become the talk of the town. His name is Shoji Morimoto, 35, and he started this job about a year ago.
1. “Rental Nothing Man” (Mr. Rental) is a person who does nothing.
On June 2, 2018, he sent out the following bizarre tweet
I am starting a new service called “Rental Do-nothing Person”, which can be used in situations where only one person’s presence is needed, such as a restaurant that is difficult to enter alone, cheering when there are not enough participants in a game, or taking a place at a cherry-blossom viewing party.
I will only charge you for transportation from Kokubunji station and food and drink (if any). I can not provide anything other than a very simple response.
However, the tweet soon became a hot topic and its existence became known.
His quirky and innovative way of life has attracted attention from various media, including the release of two books, “Story of Rental Nothing Man”,“What I Thought About Money, Work, and Relationships with Zero Specs,” which has been made into a manga, appeared on variety shows, and was closely interviewed in a documentary by NHK.
(1) Background until he started this job
After graduating from the graduate school of Osaka University, he joined a learning reference book publisher while everyone around him was pursuing a career as a researcher. However, he left the company after three years due to various problems. He then did “writer work,” but it didn’t feel right and he felt that he was not suited for anything.
When he was a businessman, his boss told him that he did not know whether he was alive or dead, or why he was there.
(2) How he started this work
When he was 33 years old, he read Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” (*), which changed his outlook on life.
(*) (Author’s note) “Zarathustra” is the German reading of the ancient Persian prophet “Zoroaster,” founder of “Zoroastrianism. This book is a hypothetical account of his words and deeds, such as <Superhuman>, <Eternal Return>, and <Will to Power>. These words are difficult to understand and are explained below.
＜The term “superhuman” refers to “a person who acts supernaturally with an established will of his or her own. In contrast, he criticizes the general public, which is “frightened by the friction of human relationships and seeks the happiness of security, peace, comfort, and ease in life,” as “cattle herds.
＜Eternal return” is Nietzsche’s fundamental philosophy that teaches ‘the absolute affirmation of life and the total denial of fictions such as God, spirit, and soul,’ because ”human life is a repetition just like the eternal cyclical movement of the universe.
＜The Will to Power is “the fundamental motivation that drives us. Striving to rise to the highest possible place in life” is an expression of ‘will to power,’ which can also be described as ”the will to own, control, be more than, and be stronger.
He says that the common sense and sense of values that had bound him to do certain things until then were overturned, and life became much easier. As a side note, the haiku poet Nakamura Kusadao also read “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” when he was in junior high school under the old school system, and it became his favorite book for the rest of his life.
He says that it gave him a “groundless confidence” that “if you think it’s interesting, that’s all that matters.
Nietzsche tells us to live as “superhumans” with our own established will in a “life of perpetual return,” instead of living for the security and comfort of life while suffering the friction of human relationships.
Mr. Rental is also “a great lover of comedy,” and once posted for about six years on a website called “Internet Ogiri. His love of comedy is evident in his Twitter feed, where he “says witty, humorous things in short sentences.”
Mr. Rental rents for “free” (*), as you can see on the first Twitter page we introduced. He has a wife (an illustrator) and a one-year-old child, whom he met through “Net Ogiri,” and I wonder how they are making a living.
On this he says, “I am drawing down my savings from my time as a company employee. Recently, I have had book launches and media appearances, and I only ask for transportation expenses for my rental business, but I don’t turn it down if I can get it separately,” he said.
(*) <added on 2020/1/10> Changed from “free” to “paid”.
He has declared that he will “charge a fee to 10,000 yen per visit” starting on 9/16/2019. The reason is that “after he was introduced on TV, there was a lot of criticism about his approach to family and housework and childcare, such as ‘abandonment of childcare,’ ‘I feel sorry for his wife,’ and ‘you should work properly.
This seems to me to be out of his original concept, but what has been the “change in the number of requests” and “customer response” since then? I am curious.
The number of “small requests” that existed when the service was free seems to have decreased because it can be done by a contractor for less than 10,000 yen, but at the moment, there are 3 to 4 requests per day.
(3) What kind of people make what kind of requests?
Many of the clients are young women, and they often make “do nothing” requests, which relieves their anxiety because they are women.
He is not family members, friends, or lovers. There was definitely a “latent demand” for “someone who doesn’t know you at all, but just wants to be there for you.
This could be described as “a service that attends to and fills in the gaps in the mind. However, it does not use the skills of a “psychotherapist” to heal the client’s mind, nor does it give accurate advice. He is “just there, like air.
He listens to the client’s confidential confession, and if the client asks, he will respond appropriately or engage in simple conversation.
Here are some of the specific clients and requests in “Rental Do-Nothing Stories of Rental Nothing Man”.
① A request to come and watch a wedding. the clients said that she had refrained from inviting her friends due to circumstances, but now she felt the desire to have someone watch the wedding.
② A request to accompany her to file divorce papers. The client said she feels lonely when she is alone and also has a desire to make the memory a little strange. She asked me, “At the end, could you say thank you (maiden name) for all your hard work,” and I did just that.
③ A request to “sit in the audience of a court case that involved her. It was a civil trial, and the client was on the defendant’s side.
④ She asked me to see her off when she moved out, because she would have been too sad if I was a friend.
⑤ She asked me to watch over the work on her marriage activities, which she was not willing to do. She was working on the registration process, grunting and groaning about once every 10 minutes.
２．What is “Rental Family”?
Rental Family” is a ‘paid rental service’ also called ‘family agency service,’ and is a type of ”handyman. There seems to be a variety of needs for “family members” even with rentals, and many companies have entered the market.
There are “rental grandchildren” who come to visit elderly residents in nursing homes and “rental fathers” who attend the greeting of both families in place of fathers who will not allow them to get married.
In addition, there are “rental mothers,” “rental boyfriends,” “rental girlfriends,” “rental husbands,” and “rental wives. They even have “sibling substitutes” like “rental sister” for families who want a sister too much.
But even if there are unavoidable circumstances,” this is just a ‘fake family,’ and am I the only one who feels something empty?
I am also worried that the true identity of the “fake family” will be discovered, and that it might cause trouble, such as a fight. Even if they don’t find out that day, how will they make things right when they find out later that they are a “fake family”?
3. Koji Tsuruta’s “fake war buddy
As an aside, there was a famous actor and singer named Koji Tsuruta (1924-1987), and I have heard from someone familiar with the backstage of television that “the person he introduced on TV as ‘a comrade-in-arms from his naval aviation days’ was not a real comrade-in-arms.
While a student at Kansai University’s College of Commerce, he was drafted into the military under the “Cadet Corps Order” and served in the “Naval Aviation Corps” until the end of the war, seeing off his comrades in arms as they flew off from suicide attack bases.
In 1953, he starred in a film titled “Kumo nagareru hato ni” (“To the end of the cloud stream”), which was based on the memoirs of a reserve navy student. The film depicts the anguish of a young Kamikaze pilot.
Ever since he starred in this film, he has referred to himself as a “Kamikaze Pilot,” a “Kamikaze Crusader. In reality, however, he was a “reserve officer in the maintenance department of the Naval Aviation Corps,” and simply saw off the suicide planes as they went off.
In 1974, Tsuruta appeared on a Yomiuri TV program called “Revival Songs: Koji Tsuruta, War buddy, Rest in Peace. Koji Tsuruta, who played Eiichi Ono, a former Navy Ensign, dedicated a song to his comrades who died as Kamikaze pilots in the Pacific War, and talked about his memories of that time with six other Kamikaze pilots who appeared in the program with him.
However, the real Kamikaze pilots knew that Koji Tsuruta was not in the Kamikaze squadron. So Tsuruta’s lie of claiming to be a “former Kamikaze pilot” was exposed, and he was fiercely protested by the Kamikaze pilot’s “Senyu-kai,” a group of friends of the Kamikaze pilots, who claimed that his military career was fraudulent.
This is not “synchronized cherry blossoms,” but rather “fake synchronized cherry blossoms,” which is not even fashionable.
However, this story seems to be partly the fault of the program producers of the TV stations and the publicity department of the movie companies, who often lie.
4. “Laughing Salesman” story
This has nothing to do with “Rental Do-nothing Man,” but the fact that this is a service that fills a gimmick in the mind reminds me of a black humor cartoon “Laughing Salesman” written by Fujiko FujioⒶ (1934 – 2022), which was published about 30 years ago. It was also aired as a TV animation and drama work, so many of you may remember it.
The story is an omnibus style story, complete in one episode, and is quite interesting. It is an omnibus story, complete in one story, and quite interesting.
The story is based on a mysterious salesman named Moguro Fukuzo who fits into the gaps in the hearts of modern people and grants them their small desires, but if they break their promises or do not listen to their advice he makes them pay the price. Each story is a complete story, and it was a very interesting work.
There are many lonely people in this world, regardless of age or gender. “Moguro Fukuzo” is a volunteer who fills the gaps in people’s hearts and grants even the most modest wishes. Dressed in all black and always with a smile on his face, he has an eerie aura and when he finds a “customer,” he provides a service that fills the “gap in their heart” and makes sure that they strictly adhere to the “promises” that come with it.
When he provides a service and fills the “gap in their hearts,” the “customer’s satisfaction” becomes Moguro’s “reward,” but if he breaks his promise or is greedy and demands more service, it is considered a “breach of contract,” and as a “penalty,” he points his index finger at the “customer” and screams “DOON!!!!”, driving them to ruin, which is the story’s terrifying conclusion.
レンタルなんもしない人のなんもしなかった話 [ レンタルなんもしない人 ]
〈レンタルなんもしない人〉というサービスをはじめます。 スペックゼロでお金と仕事と人間関係をめぐって考えたこと [ レンタルなんもしない人 ]