A Japanese man labeled a "do-nothing" employee started renting himself as a silent companion for errands and tea. He makes $80,000 a year from it. Japan's single-person households hit 38% of the population, prompting the government to appoint a Minister of Loneliness.
There is a guy in Japan making $80,000 a year for doing nothing. This guy was at work. His boss called him a do-nothing man. You just do nothing. You don't provide any value. He thought to himself, hmm, is there value in society for a man who does nothing? And he went online saying, I'm starting a new service. Rental people who do nothing. You rent him out and he'll go hang out with you and he says nothing. It's pretty much a silent companion, completely non-physical, non-sexual. Tool, basically an introvert for hire. And so what people do is they will have a task they need to go do, like an errand they need to run, or they just feel really lonely and they just want somebody to have some tea with them. And he'll come and he'll sit, he won't really say anything, and if you ask him a question, he'll give you a simple answer. What were the reasons why people wanted to hang out with him? In Japan, there's a loneliness epidemic. Single-person household, no wife or no family members, no friends, living alone by yourself, is now 38% of the population, triple where it was 5 or 7 years ago. They appointed a Minister of Loneliness because this has become such a big problem.
