This influencer has been a phenomena in Japanese society. His name is Shoji Morimoto (37).
https://twitter.com/morimotoshoji, His twitter name is Nanmoshinai Hito -a person doing nothing-
After university, he did his master program and started working at a Japanese company. However, he found himself to be a sort of “hard to adopt” worker to so-called Japanese working environment.
Then he quitted his job and thought about what he could do. However, he came up with nothing. Every job/ responsibility he came up with brought some stress, and at the end of the day, he decided to demonstrate his “do nothing ” as a service.
His followers are 274K as of Nov 2020. His service track records were published as a book and made into a film. The service which Shoji has already provided are of various categories and major types of requests are as follows:
1 Listener
2 Accompanist
3 Respond er
4 (Other) Watcher, Space occupier, etc
1 Listener
No need to have an advice or opinion, I have to speak to someone, but I don’t want to talk with my friend/ family. Those who have such desire, send DM to Shoji. Shoji comes to the place indicated, sits together with his client and listens to what he/she is going to talk. Sometimes complaints of work/ bad mouth to their partners/ or some secrets-love affairs in the past-, Shoji listen to. Shoji does nothing however clients get healthier as they speak out what they have in their minds.
2 Accompanist
A guy in his thirties or forties asked Shoji to accompany to the sweets buffet as it’s so embarrassing for him to get into the store full of ladies by himself. Once before, a guy , who tried to commit suicide but survived, asked Shoji to go with him to the place he tried. That guy wanted to check the place, trace back his feeling but needed someone with him to look at objectively what he did.
3 Respond er
Through the direct message on Twitter, clients ask Shoji to respond the message as they indicate. Shoji follows the instruction. Sometime a guy got indulged into dating with his virtual girl-friend and Shoji played the role to send the message as his client ordered. Another guy who is about to make tattoo in his body asked Shoji to send him “Good job, nice, so cool” upon completing his tattoo.
4 (Other) Watcher, Space occupier, etc
In Japan, there is a popular event called Hanami, casual gathering for cherry blossom watching under trees. Some group asked him to occupy the space under a tree for the drinking at night. A lady asked him to watch her to complete the house cleaning, and other requested Shoji to watch him to finish his homework.
This is an example of a business which is targeting the niche market but becoming a trend. That’s simply reflecting the social needs. While fulfilling our own personal desire, keeping a good distance with others including our friends or families. Say, around Showa Era, 1929-1986, people’s distance had been very close. We could not do anything fully secret. Parents, siblings, relatives, or even neighbors or friends, had never left us alone. They intervened our privacy. We eventually had felt that comfortable to confirm that there is someone in the world to pay attention to us, we are not totally alone. We don’t have to feel solitude.
I feel that the nature of us, human being, has not changed that much. We ultimately need someone who cares us. However, now a days, people can keep a distance with family or friend but eventually get connected with unknown person. Shoji is a good example of a “well- connected stranger” in our society.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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