If you’re paying people to intimidate others into doing what you want them to do, doesn’t that make you a mobster?

One of the quirkiest corners of the Japanese economy is the rent-a-person industry. No, we’re not talking about prostitution, or even the compensated companionship of host/hostess bars. In Japan, there are agencies from whom you can hire a grandma, a middle-aged man, or pretend siblings.

As any industry matures, new companies will spring up looking to differentiate from existing providers, and it seemed as though one organization had carved out a new niche for itself with Rental Kowaihito, a company founded last month on the concept of allowing customers to rent kowai hito, or “scary people.”

By “scary people,” Rental Kowaihito didn’t mean zombies or dudes with low-key but unnervingly creepy vibes. Instead, their website specifies that they rent out “people with intimidating appearances” and has pictures of men with shaved heads, bulky physiques, and prominent tattoos of the type associated with yakuza organized crime syndicates. 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,” “neighbors who continue to be noisy no matter how much you tell them to be quiet,” and “trouble with men or women involved in cheating or extramarital affairs.”

Within the out-in-the-open rent-a-person industry, this is a novel concept, but as Rental Kowaihito attracted attention over the course of last month, several online commenters expressed that paying someone to create a menacing atmosphere with a vague implication of violence in order to coerce other people to do what you want them to is a service that’s been offered for many years…by gangsters and mobsters.

One of the scenarios Rental Kowaihito says it can help with is one in which a customer feels like they’re still owed back pay by a former employer, but bypassing the court system and settling your financial disagreements by rolling up to negotiations with your own personal thugs and telling them they’d better pay up seems like the sort of thing that could potentially open you up to various criminal charges such as extortion and assault. Similarly, the company says it could send a team of burly, angry-looking guys to accompany a woman while she confronts the woman her husband has been cheating on her with, which, again, seems like the sort of intimidation tactic that could get you in trouble with the law. Rental Kowaihito’s website also recommends their services for intimidating “people who treat you coldly in the workplace,” which definitely doesn’t seem like grounds for subtly threatening someone with physical harm, and perhaps most questionable of all, dealing with “your child being bullied,” implying that they’re OK with implying violence towards children too as long as you pay them.

▼ Those are some nice crayons you got there, kid…it’d be a real shame if something were to happen to ’em.

The operation didn’t look any more legit after commenters noticed that while the service and website are called “Rental Kowaihito,” the actual legally registered name of the company isn’t listed anywhere on their website, nor are such basics as a company profile, headquarters address, or any contact information, instead asking potential clients to contact them through a Line messaging app account. Other licensing information which companies in the rent-a-person industry are required to disclose were also missing from the site, and the collective shadiness has promoted online comments such as:

“Is this even legal?”
“So…these guys are just yakuza…”
“They’re pretty blasé about intimidation being their method of choice, but did anyone there do a legal compliance check on that?”
“This sounds like a new kind of yami baito [part-time criminal work].”
“What if someone rents scary people to settle a dispute, but the other party doesn’t back down, and so they rent scary people too? Is there a chance that you’d have scary people on opposite sides who’re actually coworkers with each other?”

Taking all this into account, it would probably be a good idea for anyone employing Rental Kowaihito’s services to also consider the fact that they, themselves, may be committing a crime. Or it would have been a good idea, had it not been for Rental Kowaihito’s abrupt announcement on August 31 that “Due to various circumstances, this service has been ended.” Seeing as how there’s no mention of this being a temporary measure, it would seem that whoever was actually running Rental Kowaihito has concluded that the line between the service and a straight-up gang was too fine to see, if there ever was one at all.

Source: Sponichi Annex via Livedoor News via Itai News, Hachima Kiko, Twitter/rentalkowaihito (1, 2,  3)
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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