The best type of friends are free.
Shoji Morimoto, 39, has been hired more than 4,000 times since starting his unique “rental person” business in 2018 and, until recently, has been getting paid for “doing nothing.”
But now, the creative entrepreneur has revealed he’s done charging his clients money to spend time with him.
“We are starting a service called ‘People who don’t rent anything,’” Morimoto posted on X in September.
“Please use it in situations where the presence of just one person is required, such as stores that are difficult to enter alone, adjusting the number of people for games, and finding a spot for cherry blossom viewing. The price is free.”
Clients now have the luxury of allowing Morimoto to grace them with his presence by simply reimbursing him for his travel expenses and any food and drink consumed during his meeting.
Unfortunately, those looking for deep conversation or building a personal relationship are out of luck.
“I can’t do anything other than give you a very simple response,” the Japanese businessman wrote in his post.
The reason for the change in business strategy comes off the heels of Morimoto’s own self-interest — it’s simply fun for him, he revealed in his recently released memoir, “Rental Person Who Does Nothing.”
“Do-nothing Rental gives me a similar kind of passive entertainment, even though, in this case, I’m the service provider rather than the service user,” he wrote in his book, according to Business Insider.
Morimoto used to charge about $68 a session — 10,000 Japanese yen — to hang out with various clients for various reasons.
Before COVID-19, Morimoto revealed he made nearly $300 daily.
As the tail end of the pandemic winded down and lockdown restrictions dwindled, his business began to pick back up.
Over the years, clients have hired him for everything ranging from regular coffee meet-ups and social interactions to more bizarre sessions.
He detailed how he was once hired to watch a wife search through the trenches of online dating sites to find her husband.
“She screamed (like in her DM) every 10 minutes or so. At one stage, she made a mistake with an app, clicking ‘Like’ for a man she wanted to skip through. She stared up at the ceiling and looked very upset,” Morimoto wrote, according to Business Insider.
Nevertheless, he said he had a “great afternoon tea and really enjoyed” himself during their encounter.
Morimoto also wrote he once had to accompany a client to file their divorce papers in court.
Strangely enough, he’s also been hired to be there for clients during deeply personal moments.
He shared that he once had to see a client off as they departed from a train station, while on another occasion, he greeted a client at the finish line of a marathon.
Despite being labeled a “new-age gigolo” by critics, the savvy entrepreneur has boundaries regarding his clients.
For one, no sex.
A married man with children, Morimoto revealed in his book that he once turned down a client who asked to have sex with him.
Another no-go for him — pop concerts.
“I’ve turned down a number of requests to go to pop concerts too,” he wrote.
“I don’t know much about music, and most of the concerts I’ve been asked to go along to have been by artists I’ve never heard of.”
He’s also turned down jobs to move a refrigerator and travel to Cambodia.
The self-described “introvert” alluded that being hired to provide people company was somewhat of a perfect fit for his personality.
“The client wants to do something, and I just go along. No deep commitment is expected and no personality required,” he wrote in his memoir.
One of his clients, Aruna Chida, a 27-year-old data analyst from Japan, explained that she hired him for his company so she wouldn’t feel the need to “entertain” him like she would her real friends.
“With my friends, I feel I have to entertain them,” Chida said of Morimoto’s service in 2022. “But with the rental guy, I don’t feel the need to be chatty.”
“It’s funny that someone like Rental Person should be in demand. I suppose you could say my lack of individuality has become my ‘product,’” Morimoto wrote.
