Japanese novel review: “I’m heading out right now to quit my job. Be back in a bit.”

This book title “ちょっと今から仕事やめてくる”, is quite hard to translate, because of its nuances, but this translation you see in the post title is my take on how I feel it should be translated.

The author of this book is KITAGAWA Emi.

Here is the synopsis loosely translated by yours truly as well: Takashi works in a ブラック企業 (black company) and is faced with a lot of shit from work. One day, while he was about to unconsciously fall into the path of an oncoming train, a guy named “Yamamoto” shows up and saves him. Yamamoto says he is Takashi’s classmate back in elementary school. Takashi is glad to have someone to talk to and opens up to Yamamoto, sharing his troubles. However, he later finds out that

his real classmate, Yamamoto, is actually living overseas. Who exactly is this Yamamoto then? Why is he going so far to help Takashi?

I finished the last section of the book today and it filled my eyes with tears.
I have never worked in a black company in Japan before, nor do I want to, but I feel that this book accurately describes the condition and mentality of someone who does. I have always wondered why people who work in black companies in Japan can’t just quit their jobs. Why do they choose to commit suicide over quitting their jobs? If you have the same question, I urge you to read this book if you understand Japanese.

I was fortunate that it was made into a movie and I happened to have seen the trailer floating around Facebook. The trailer fascinated me a lot, so I purchased the novel from my hometown’s bookstore. I then brought it over to Japan, because I was halfway through it.

One thing I like about this book is that it is relatively simple to read. It has a lot of dialogues, and even the narrative is written in a very simple storytelling kind of way. The fourth wall is also broken at times, which makes it an interesting read. I feel like Kitagawa-sensei is talking to me as I flip through the pages.

It ends on a really satisfying note as well, even though everything is portrayed realistically. I can’t recommend this enough.