Contemporary Urban Hideaways: Shops inTwo Japanese Novels

The aim of the present study is to identify how different types of shops—a thrift shop and a convenience store—are represented in two Japanese novels that illustrate various facets of contemporary society: Kawakami Hiromi’s (b. 1958) Furudōgu Nakano shōten (The Nakano Thrift Shop, 2005) and Murata Sayaka’s (b. 1979) Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Woman, 2016). What are the narratives that define such spaces of monetary transit? How do these writers weave a specific image of the shop in their prose? And what role does the shop play in these novels that present aspects of contemporaneity – for example, on the one hand, social phobia in the case of Kawakami’s male character Takeo, and on the other hand, alienation and the pressure to conform to society’s norms in the case of Murata’s female protagonist Keiko? In this article I analyze how these commercial spaces are depicted as urban hideaways in Kawakami Hiromi’s The Nakano Thrift Shop and Murata Sayaka’s Convenience Store Woman. These places are characterized not only by the financial dimension, but by an emotional one as well, namely the possibility of building new relationships with other people (for instance, the staff members, their relatives, and the customers) and a special bond with one’s workplace.