Strangers for Hire

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are getting used to the idea of people renting out their homes for holidays or using their cars as taxis, all via online sites. Perhaps the next wave is going to be hiring people – not just to do work for us, but to do the kinds of things we once expected friends and families to do. Like offering a sympathetic ear to your problems. Nina Robinson reports on some the eyebrow-raising services now available.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the BBC World Service documentary, Strangers for Hire.
0:10.0	Hello. In a Tokyo cafe, I'm setting up an unusual deal with a woman on the phone.
0:17.0	Hello.
0:18.0	Hello this is Nina Robinson here from the BBC.
0:22.0	So I'm here in Japan alone and I'm looking for a friend. Do you think
0:28.4	that you might be able to help me?
0:32.0	Hi.
0:34.0	So what I was thinking was I really want to get my nails done but it's no fun going to
0:41.3	a nail parlor on your own so I just wondered whether you could join me
0:46.7	for an hour on Wednesday.
0:48.7	She's fine I'd be happy too. Oh great, great. So we can make the arrangements on
0:58.6	text.
1:00.6	Three on Wednesday, so any time it's fine.
1:05.0	Okay, that's great.
1:09.0	Hiring strangers, much like this Japanese pop song, which mixes cute with heavy metal, is an interesting
1:17.7	contradiction.
1:18.7	The thing that kind of like goes down in history as one of the most surreal
1:25.0	conversations that I've had.
1:30.0	It's a thriving online industry to search for a suitable person and ask them to do almost anything for you in Japan, a place often ahead of the curve.
1:42.0	Could it catch on elsewhere?
1:46.0	But I've just made an arrangement to meet somebody that I've never met before and
1:51.0	she's going to be my friend.
	...

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