Review: Convenience Store Womanby Sayaka Murata

I've a subscription (it's free! You should too!) to Domestic Sluttery and aside from the many cool things I have learned about women in history, every so often they are onto a great clothing deal, trend or book recommendation. Their recipe suggestions are also amazing to salivate at and perhaps try one day.

Just before the end of July, I had a list of summer books to try in my inbox. I read the synopses of three of them and thought, "yes," then ordered them (and a few others) on my kindle.

The first I read was Convenience Store Woman, seeing as it is the most topical of the three (or so I thought) in that I am currently in Japan, where the book is set.

It is the story of a woman who works part time in a convenience store - could be a Family Mart, 7-Eleven, Lawsons or other brand, they're all very similar with only slight variences - in her thirties and is trying to get on with her life, despite her choices being outside of the norm. She has pressure from all sides to conform to societal expectation and when she tries to, she becomes miserable.

The way DS sold it was that the book was a discussion about how being single, living alone and working as a shop floor assistant doesn't mean you're not worthy.  I was immediately there, because feminism and civil rights is on a slight upward trend, at least as far as the West is concerned, in Japan, in that they younger generations are talking about it. It's becoming news and topical, rather than a "just muddle on despite it" sort of culture. I will get to that later.

First, the book itself: I enjoyed it. It was easy to read, well translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - it would use one or two Japanese words but translate the rest. I don't think there is a Western equivalent to "Irasshaimasé!", to be fair, which is the word called out by all shop staff across the country.

If you are interested in a slice of life of an "ordinary", someone who's not a high flyer in Japan, this books is pretty good for that. It also discusses the contradictions and frankly nonsensical attitudes of people towards people like our main character.

It is no secret that Japan has a rather extreme work ethic - long hours, must be able to support yourself and family etc.  It also sticks to a lot of traditional values, even within some areas of the LGBTQ community. There are some bars that are gender separated/segregated, and not necessarily for the safe space reasons. You must be married, you must have a "proper" job (at a desk, in a company, not on your feet in a convenience store, full time or otherwise) by your thirties, you must have your own place, otherwise you're a burden on society - even if you are contributing to society by running the stores that are intrinsically part of every day Japanese life!

It struck a chord with me, just because it's the sort of thing you hear racists and xenophobes in the West say about immigrants - that they are a burden on society, that they are welfare riders etc, when the vast majority are doing jobs that those complainers don't want to do (cleaning, plumbing, street sweeper etc) or are more qualified to do (doctors, nurses, scientists).

Sexism is rife in Japan - you will no doubt have heard that one of the top medical universities in Japan has admitted to fiddling with women's scores, because they don't think women doctors are worth having, because they'll leave to have a family.  Even if you're an international, even if you're more qualified than the male candidate, they will go with the male candidate. They also push (female) international workers towards child-care based careers, such as tutoring, teaching, au pairing, whatever their professional background or personal ambitions - all women love children, right?!  A recent twitter hashtag in response to the female doctor scores has been very enlightening about the daily misogyny, double standards and blatent sexism that they go through every day.

These things are brought up both by our protagonist and by her "male counterpart", who actually reads as an Incel. He is an extreme case, perhaps, but actually he is just as much a victim of the strict patriarchal social rules as she is - he is expected to have a family, to earn enough to keep one, to be the higher earner, etc etc, when actually he is a drifter, a job-hopper and deeply unattractive - both physically and mentally. He is a big man-baby, is what he is, a slob and as deep a sexist as anybody else. He is a typical man who is unable to "attract a mate" because he does nothing to present himself in a desirable way and he blames everyone else for his problems while looking down on our protagonist for being happy the way she is.

It is no wonder that this book has been a best seller in Japan and was hotly anticipated in the UK.
It touches many social concerns that people no doubt have and highlights the absurdities of it - in the end, she cancels an interview for a "proper" job because she had popped into a different convenience store and seen how poorly run and set up it was and quickly fixed it, displaying her inate ability and affinity with that job. It is who she is, she says, the shop speaks to her and she is a Convenience Store Worker.

Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5.

Why not a perfect score?  There was one thing that did not sit right with me....

In the beginning of the book, the protagonist takes you through episodes of her childhood which highlighted to everybody that she was strange and needed to be "cured".  This is a theme throughout the book - that she is good at mimicking the behaviours of others to fit in and she is scared that if people realise that she doesn't feel anger towards the small things they do, or she doesn't want to get married or somehow does or says anything that lets people see she is "wrong" somehow, she will lose her friends or her job. Which is fine, I guess.

Except that the incidents and behaviours described come across as sociopathic and/or ASD.  There's no reason why the protagonist can't be on the spectrum, but it seemed a bit of too much of another level of difficulty and "explanation" as to why she is only happy as a part-time conbini worker.  Why does the protagonist have to be non-neurotypical at all? What if she is simply someone who is not particularly skilled at anything else and just likes being a store worker, which is what the main take away is anyway? What if she has no ambitions above that, enjoys her solitude and has no desire for a family? That is weird enough in Japan as it is!  There's no need to have childhood episodes where she seems to display violent and borderline sociopathic behaviours.

That is my only criticism - the overall quality of the writing and the way she brings the store to life (and the behind the scenes working of these stores!) and comments on society and its often contradictory expectations (people are happy she has a man, even if she is the main breadwinner and is keeping him and they disapprove of him) is enjoyable, thought-provoking and will strike a chord with Western readers as much as with its Japanese.