This 41-year-old Japanese man earned Rs 69 lakh a year from ‘doing nothing’

Morimoto said people hire him because people find his presence comforting when they feel uncomfortable socialising in certain settings. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A Japanese man who was fired in 2018 for lacking initiative and “not doing anything” of value ironically made a career out of doing nothing. Morimoto, now 41, is popularly known as the rental “do nothing” guy in Japan and last year, he earned around $80,000 (about Rs 69 lakh) by loaning himself out to strangers who seek someone’s company in a non-romantic way.

These requests for company can range from being video-called while a bored client redecorates and cleans her room to waiting for a marathon runner at the finishing line, CNBC Make It reported. Morimoto told the publication that once a client who could not attend a concert with a friend rented him to take her place.

The father of a seven-year-old said he receives about 1,000 requests per year, and allows his clients to decide how much to pay him. He used to charge a flat rate of between 10,000 yen and 30,000 yen (Rs 5,400 and Rs 16,200) for a two- to three-hour session but introduced the pay-as-you-wish model by the end of 2024.

“I charge a voluntary fee, so I don’t know if it will be sustainable, but I’m having fun trying to see if it’s sustainable,” Morimoto told CNBC Make It. He said that his goal was to “simply live life and enjoy it” and not to make a living.

Morimoto said people in Japan hire him because people find his presence comforting when they feel uncomfortable socialising in certain settings. He recalled a stint when a woman once paid him to sit in a corner of a cafe, in her line of vision, while she served divorce papers to her husband. Morimoto said the paper signing went off smoothly, and the divorcee felt a tad bit more courageous from having someone she knew nearby.

“There are many different [favorite] moments in this job, such as when I receive an offer message, when I meet a client, when I accompany a client to an unknown place, when I just listen to a story, and I feel happy in every moment,” Morimoto told the publication. “There was nothing else I truly wanted to do.”