If you’re a non-confrontational person who’s tired of being annoyed by loud neighbors, wouldn’t it be great if you could hire a tough guy on DoorDash to tell them to knock it off? Japan has a “rent-a-person” industry, which has all sorts of options, like grandmothers, pretend siblings, and things like “muscle” for big moves.
There’s also some niche offerings, like “kowai hito,” which is “SCARY PEOPLE.” They say that’s “people with intimidating appearances”, like men with tattoos, shaved heads, and bulky physiques.
The company says these scary people are available for “accompanying customers” when “resolving interpersonal disputes, such as dealing with ‘people who bully you in the workplace, neighbor issues, settling your financial disagreements, and trouble with cheating or extramarital affairs.'”
On one hand, this seems like it could be useful as a support system, although critics would say “hiring guns” like this KINDA makes you a GANGSTER.
It’s also unclear what happens if your target ALSO hires scary people.
But before you get too excited about this concept, it’s unclear how legit this service is, or WAS. After recent reports got out about it, people discovered that the company wasn’t legally registered, and there wasn’t any official contact information.
And last weekend, the company announced, “Due to various circumstances, this service has been ended.”
