Tokyo: There are hardly any people who have not thought at least once that they could have earned money for doing nothing. A Japanese man named Shoji Morimoto earns money by doing nothing like this.

There are very few people who do not wish they had a companion when going on a trip or going to a restaurant. This 31-year-old Tokyo resident earns money by accompanying people in need. In return, he charges 10,000 yen ($71) per booking.

"Basically, I hire myself out and my job is to be wherever my clients want me to be and do nothing in particular," Morimoto says. Morimoto has managed nearly 4,000 sessions over the past four years.

Morimoto, of slim build and average appearance, now has a quarter of a million followers on Twitter, where he finds most of his clients. A quarter of them are repeat customers, including one who hired him 270 times.

Once, as part of his job, a guy took him to a park and required him to play see-saw with him. On the other hand, the other wanted to send him on his way by waving his hand when he was leaving on the train.

Doing nothing doesn't mean Morimoto will do anything. He turned down offers to move a fridge and go to Cambodia.

Last week, Morimoto sat across from Aruna Chida, a 27-year-old data analyst, wearing a sari and making rare conversation over tea and dosa.

Chida wanted to wear Indian clothing in public but worried that it would embarrass her friends. So she turned to Morimoto for companionship.

Before Morimoto found his true calling, he worked at a publishing company and was often chided for "doing nothing". "I started wondering what would happen if I provided my ability to 'do nothing as a service to clients,'" he said.

The companionship business is now Morimoto's sole source of income, with which he supports his wife and child. Although he declined to disclose how much he makes, he said he sees about one or two clients a day. Before the pandemic, it was three or four a day.

As he spent a Wednesday doing nothing of note in Tokyo, Morimoto reflected on the bizarre nature of his job and appeared to question a society that values ​​productivity and derides uselessness.

"People tend to think that my 'doing nothing is valuable because it is useful (for others) ... But it's fine to really not do anything. People do not have to be useful in any specific way," he said.