Japan: Rent An Uncle To Do Your Chores, Get Advice And Ward Off Stalkers

If you are on the lookout for a middle-age companion who will provide you a platonic companionship, do your chores and even help you ward off stalkers, then perhaps you need to take a trip to Japan. According to Business Insider, an online service called Ossan Rental lets you hire a middle-aged man at the billing rate of barely nine dollars per hour, who will listen to your life problems, give you life and love advice and even do chores like setting up your furniture. The founder of the company Takanobu Nishimoto claims that to his surprise it is women, more than men, who form his clientele. The term Ossan is a slang for an “uncle” in Japanese, and Nishimoto chose to use this term to dispel the stereotyping of middle-aged men in the country.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• A rental service in Japan lets you hire middle-aged men.
• These men offer life and love advice, do household chores and even accompany the customer to concerts.
• The company offering these services however prohibits these men from getting physical with the clients.
• While the target customers were men, it is women who form major clientele of Ossan Rentals.

An online service called Ossan Rental lets you hire a middle-aged man at the billing rate of barely nine dollars per hour, who will listen to your life problems, give you life and love advice and even do chores like setting up your furniture.

This bizarre business tale of demand and supply puts the focus on the loneliness and a sense of directionlessness that most urban youths experience today. Nishimoto employs 80 Ossans today, and takes upto 900 bookings in a month. According to him most of the customers simply want advice or companionship, something which was free of cost in the past. We millennials pride ourselves in being lone wolves of big bad cities. We are content with digital socialisation and choose to keep our nose to ourselves when it comes to face to face interactions with other people. We avoid real conversations and believe in cutting out toxic relationships, familial or otherwise.

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But this attitude to be solitary dwellers comes with its own set of side effects. We forget that every person has something bad and as well as good to offer. So when we cut out a person for the things we do not like about them, we are also pulling the plug on everything good they have to offer. So without even realising we may be cutting out a person with a caring attitude because we find them to be too intrusive, too political, too apolitical or containing any other trait that offends a millennial (of which there is a plethora). Also, since we lead distinct and elusive digital lives, we often avoid the company of our social media peers because it makes us self-conscious.

As a result, millennial existence is marred by emotionally handicapped. A lot of us have no one to turn to for advice. It is especially difficult for women to find a supportive male friend or father figure who would offer them guidance, or help them take care of an unwanted stalker, without asking for sexual or romantic favours in return. Is it a surprise then, that it is women who come seeking services of Ossan Rental more than men? In modern times you have to buy everything, even companionship and personal advice. That is the bitter cost we pay for living lives on our terms. However, one feels that there may be more to this desire among women to have these hired male chaperons and father figures in their lives.

Like India, Japan is a heavily patriarchal country, where women are discouraged from seeking independence of any kind. They are expected to lead life as per conservative Japanese traditions, as a result of which many women who choose to do otherwise have to deal with male resentment in all walks of their lives. Bitter terms with men their lives means that they are short of nurturing heterosexual relationships. Perhaps if the society stops resisting the empowerment of women and conditions men to not be intimidated if women seek to live their lives on their term, women won’t have to turn to paid services for life advice.

Image credit: tofugu.com

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Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section. The views expressed are the author’s own.