The career of Shoji Morimoto as a ´Rental person who does nothing´ started via messages via Twitter/now-X: people asking him to remind them to cut their nails preparing for sex later in the day, a company during a meal, someone to listen to them. Featured in the Japanese and international media, his experience matches the longing for human vicinity I personally often experience during my travels and year of work spent in Japan.
The book accounting for his interactions is too pretentious to be called ´a memoir´ as it is rather a collection of extended experiences based on his interactions during his various and diverse assignments. Not a basically paid service, but happily accepting payments, Morimoto is driven by curiosity but also by the very human inclination to share company and empathy.
As a chameleon, he adapts to the most direct or unheard of requests, but there is an existential layer to his ´business´: he is filling the immediate reality, he is here and there, one he is needed, without exceeding his mandate - which is to be present. He is not giving opinions, not judging, just taking the tasks and live in the moment.
A person without features, Shoji Morimoto showed in Rental Person Who Does Nothing some ways to reverse loneliness, as well as how important human contact will always remain. A recommended book to anyone trying to better fathom the Japanese mentality but also the human needs in general.
Rating: 3 stars
