Convenience Store Woman

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried about how she would get on in the real world. When she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so she can play the part of a normal person. However, 18 years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only a few friends. She feels comfortable in her life but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis – but will it be for the better? Providing a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind, Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan.