Yu Miri

Kazu is dead. But through his eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn more intimate details of his story, how society’s inequalities and constrictions spiraled towards his ghostly fate, with moments of beauty and grace just out of reach. Born the same year as the Japanese emperor, Kazu’s life was tied by a series of coincidences to the imperial family and shaped every turn by modern Japanese history.

Tokyo Ueno Station

Akutagawa-award-winning author Yu Miri uses her outsider's perspective as a Zainichi (Korean-Japanese) writer to craft a novel of utmost importance to this moment, a powerful rebuke to the Imperial system and a sensitive, deeply felt depiction of the lives of Japan's most vulnerable people.