In fact, Japan is one of the countries where automation is favoured – there are more vending machines in Japanese cities than anywhere else in the world workers in Japan are expected to go beyond their brief to serve their employers and clients their days are structured in a way that work is prioritised over the self.
In Japan, work culture is often mechanised. In many ways, Keiko’s story is a sharp criticism of Japan’s mechanistic society, where women have little choice and control. Murata’s novel is a transgression as it moves between hilarity and hopelessness, and portrays a candid feminist story of a woman who has chosen to confine herself inside a 24-hour convenience store. Keiko is the protagonist of Japanese author, Sayaka Murata’s novel Convenience Store Woman(translated from Japanese to English by Ginny Tapley Takemori) and is a captivating voice, almost always bluntly honest about society’s blurring boundaries between public and private when it comes to women’s lives and bodies. For Keiko, she is a convenience store worker even “more than she is a person”, and for her, it is an informed choice to find structure and peace in this, even if her family, friends and colleagues think otherwise. She is 36 years old, unambitious and a convenience store worker whose life has remained stagnant for 18 years.
Keiko Furukura is a creature of mystery, not just for her readers but also for herself.
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