Heisei Tokyo Twelve Faces

★Twelve non-fiction writers, twelve social puzzles of intertwined light and shadow ★Uncover the undercurrents of life behind the mask of Tokyo's bustling city ★Interpret the diverse and complex true face of an international metropolis [About the author] The monthly "Literary Spring and Autumn Annals" is a literary publication founded in 1923 by the Japanese writer Kan Kikuchi and has hundreds of thousands of readers. "Straight to Tokyo Fifty Years Later" is a column specially created to welcome the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Olympics and pay tribute to the classic documentary "Straight to Tokyo" written by writer Kai Taka Ken before the first Tokyo Olympics in 1964. It invites well-known non-fiction writers, including many Oyaku Soichi Prize winners, to participate in the creation, capturing the changes in the city of Tokyo from Showa to Heisei over fifty years from all aspects. In 2019, the editorial department of "Literary Spring and Autumn" selected twelve column articles and compiled them into this book for publication. [Introduction] In May 2019, Japan ended the Heisei era and entered the first year of Reiwa. Since then, the Tokyo Olympics, originally held in 2020, was postponed to 2021 due to the new crown epidemic. Looking back at history, the first Tokyo Olympics was held in 1964. At that time, Japan took advantage of the rapid economic development and made rapid progress towards the goal of becoming a world power. However, after entering the Heisei era, the prosperity of Showa became a thing of the past, and various social problems began to appear as the economic bubble burst. But at the same time, as the pace of the city gradually slows down, the various aspects of life that have been embedded in the background of the times have surfaced in unexpected places, allowing people to re-understand the warm side of this big city. This book is a selection of twelve articles that reflect the changes in "people" in Tokyo - residents' living conditions and changes in personal consciousness - from the column "Tokyo Directly in Fifty Years" that was serialized in the monthly "Bungeishunqiu" from 2016 to 2019. It was interviewed and written by 12 non-fiction writers (many of whom have won the Otaku Soichi Non-fiction Award) on different topics. From urban residents who are disturbed by high-rise buildings in their daily lives, to hunters and fishermen who make a living in traditional ways in the remote mountains and islands; from elderly people who oppose the establishment of kindergartens because of noise pollution, to public office employees who provide protection for domestic violence children; from announcers and listeners connected by late-night broadcasts, to those who restart their journey to visit shrines due to loneliness. Young women; from Indian IT elites with families gathered near Nishi-Kasai Station, to Filipino domestic helpers who provide housekeeping services to office workers and the elderly... Twelve warm and in-depth reports, twelve colorful social puzzles, show different aspects of light and shadow in contemporary Tokyo, and provide an in-depth interpretation of the diverse and complex true face of this international metropolis that is both new and old.