The treatment of Japan’s working poor and destitute homeless is severely critiqued via a lingering ghost’s first-person reflections of the pathos of his life, beginning with his lowly birth in 1933 (ironically, on the same day as the country’s then-Crown Prince—the future Emperor Akihito) to his gruesome suicide at the book’s eponymous train station near an imperial park sometimes available to the hapless homeless, which had become his residence. My review is based on the English translation by Morgan Giles of the book by Korean-Japanese author, Yu Miri, whose condemnation is linked to ongoing issues culminating in Japan’s Tokyo successful 2020 bid to host the Olympics and the natural disasters of 2011.

Lyrically metaphorical and fluid in some parts while overly didactic and tedious in others, Kazu’s depiction of episodes of his life demonstrates his sadness at being as ignored as a human being as he is as a now-disembodied, torn spirit that cannot hear or smell and no one can see as he seemingly floats over and around people and places from his youth, early jobs near and far from home, his marriage and children, and his ultimate lonely and desperate homeless life in Ueno Park.

As a world traveler who has been fortunate to enjoy the loveliness of Japan’s places and people, I was touched by this book’s reminder of the human costs of progress and pleasure that many of us too often ignore. Through the story of one unfortunate person and those whose lives are interwoven with his, I was touched, saddened, and motivated to learn more—and to do more.

It must be acknowledged that this book is depressing—and although the lilting language is often beautiful and moving, the book unfortunately too often (and too abruptly) departs from Kazu’s very personal tale (the details of which are effective at humanizing the larger story) by intruding with pages and pages of clinical recitations of turgid textbook historical commentary (much of which readers might feel compelled to skim over because the humans become statistics). Therefore, I regret that I cannot give this book more than a 3-star rating, with the proviso that it is definitely worth reading and contemplating.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group/Riverhead Books for providing a free Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I found this short novel lyrical and heartbreaking - perhaps too much so with the many tragedies that touch the life of the narrator, a recently deceased homeless man who lived his final years in Ueno Park. An interesting look at the isolation and economic divisions in Japan, but a bit of a difficult read.