At the start of 2018, Shoji Morimoto was quietly drifting through a life he found increasingly difficult. Despite a postgraduate degree in physics from the prestigious Osaka University, he had spent most of his career in educational publishing working alongside colleagues who could not understand this skinny young man’s complete lack of ambition. Where his peers craved responsibility, acclaim and any opportunity to project themselves onto the world, Morimoto seemed content only when unnoticed and undisturbed. This passivity seemed to spark anger in some. On work nights out, he would sit in silence and nurse a beer while his boss heaped insults on him. He was, he was told, a “permanent vacancy”. It was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead. His presence in the workplace literally made no difference whatsoever.
The worst part was that Morimoto knew his boss was not wrong. Decision-making stressed him out inordinately. He was allergic to teamwork. Mundane office tasks were liable to cause him a deep, abiding unease... He was unsuccessful and he was unhappy.
Then everything changed.
He did nothing.
Five years ago, having left his job in publishing and feeling disillusioned after his early impetus to make it as a freelance writer fizzled out, he began to advertise a particular service online. The proposition was straightforward. Members of the public could hire him. “I’m available for any situation in which you want a person to be there,” he tweeted. “Maybe there’s a restaurant you want to go to, but you feel awkward going on your own. Maybe a game you want to play, but you’re one person short. Or perhaps you’d like someone to keep a space in the park for your cherry blossom viewing party.”
This guy is my new idle.
I just saw he has a book coming out. Might be an interesting little read.