Yu Miri's Tokyo Ueno Station was originally published in 2014. A graphic novel, Tokyo Ueno Station tells the story of a man named Kazu, who was born in 1933 in a town in Japan called Fukushima. Incidentally, Kazu was born in the same year as Akihito, the former Emperor of Japan. Kazu's life ends up being mirrored by the emperor's life in many ways. The two, in fact, share several places in common with each other, particularly Tokyo's Ueno Station, where Kazu started his working life in 1964 in support of the upcoming Olympics in Japan. It was also at Ueno Station where Kazu's life ended. The novel then follows Kazu's journey through the afterlife, which Kazu realizes is not what he expected it to be.
At its core, Tokyo Ueno Station is a sharp rebuke and criticism of Japan's emperor and its imperial system. Miri's novel is also an exploration of the downtrodden and the overlooked in Japanese society — people like Kazu.
When released, Tokyo Ueno Station was incredibly well-received. NPR wrote that "Tokyo Ueno Station is a stunning novel and a harsh, uncompromising look at existential despair." The Guardian thought similarly, writing in their positive review of the novel that Tokyo Ueno Station is "an elliptical examination of the divisions between rich and poor in contemporary Japan."
