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Japanese pay rather than ask for help
By Mark Magnier in Tokyo
November 1, 2003 Some clients' flats were chest-high in garbage because they were terrified of running into other people at the communal rubbish bin.
Others needed help making up their wedding parties, including a bride who was supplied with two 27-year-olds posing as her bridesmaids.
Then there was the young woman who had retreated to her bathroom after finding a dead cockroach in her living room. After an emergency phone call, it took less than a minute to remove the offending object. Fee: $A70.
Part handymen, part psychologists, Japan's "benriya", or "convenience-doers", solve problems once handled by relatives, neighbours and friends. Business is thriving in this society beset by social fears, alienation and an apparent inability - or unwillingness - to perform many of life's basic tasks.
Even as they pocket often-hefty fees, however, some benriya reflect on the social changes that have fuelled demand for their services. "It's sad that Japanese find it so difficult to ask each other for even simple favours," said Kanji Sugimoto, head of the Project K benriya firm.
Benriya are unlicensed, and most are men working alone - an estimated 5000 nationwide, including about 1000 in Tokyo. They advertise in leaflets, in phone books, over the internet and by word of mouth. Though every nation has its handymen, benriya perform a much wider variety of tasks than their overseas counterparts.
"Compared to Americans, Japanese are far less independent or self-reliant," said Yutaka Iwase, director of the Osaka-based Japan Benriya Association. "In Japan, benriya do a lot that people really should do themselves."
As life in Japan becomes more divorced from nature, the tolerance for dirt and odd smells has dropped, bringing more calls to rid flats of such things as odours that sometimes appear imaginary.
Many benriya also have first-hand experience with "hikikomori" - the social breakdown and acute depression now on the rise in Japan. Tokyo-based ACT Service, which specialises in female clients, offers a combined house cleaning and psychological counselling package for those unable to cope, fearful of even the slightest contact with neighbours.
Given the importance of saving face and avoiding confrontation, benriya are also able to help extricate a customer from a sticky situation, such as saying no to a troublesome neighbour.
"They fill a real need in Japanese society," said Motoo Murata, an independent analyst. That can also include spying on lovers, supplying alibis, pretending to be the husband of a loan applicant or sitting in as the fiance for a gay or happily single client during parental visits.
Yutaka Manabe, head of Benriya Japan, earned $A640 pretending to be a groom's professor, giving a glowing speech about the young man's non-existent academic achievements.
Los Angeles Times
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| Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald. |