A Man

by Keiichirō Hirano

Kido believed this was wrong. For the judiciary to cancel out such a failure of the legislative and executive branches by nullifying the existence of the resulting lawbreaker was simply disingenuous. If such a system went unchallenged, a vicious cycle would emerge

“If we are ever going to wipe away the evil of murder, then as a fundamental baseline

condition, we need to reject the idea that it is acceptable to kill in extreme cases.

Offenders will surely never be forgiven, but the state should bear the blame for the social conditions underlying their crimes and take responsibility by providing substantial support to the victims, instead of...

“By the time Hara-san met your brother, he was most likely going by the name Sonézaki. In other words, he was no longer the child of a convict. That is the reason, I expect, that your brother was willing to trade family registers with him.

Kyoichi’s belief that Hara was prone to criminality had some merit to it, as Hara’s home environment had been just as wretched.

Kido hated the very idea of collecting human beings into categories. That was the sole reason he found his Zainichi background bothersome. It should have gone without saying that some Zainichi would be good people and some bad,

Having consulted several records of the Great Kanto Earthquake, he knew that there were fifty-three cases involving Koreans being murdered just counting documented prosecutions, and that, according to the Ministry of Justice at the time, the resulting death count was 233. In actuality—though there were many differing theories—the tally was estimated to be several times larger,

Misuzu hadn’t joined the counter-demonstrations because she had an idealized conception of them. Rather, she had become involved because their existence was currently under threat. Japan was in a bad way. “Shouldn’t Japanese people treat it as a problem with their own country and be obligated to go to the counter-demonstrations themselves?

“It’s agonizing for me, this situation . . . ,” he blurted. “We need to talk about how to improve it because I don’t want our marriage to end.”

there is something about our relationship that just isn’t working anymore. I’d been thinking that what we needed was to talk, but perhaps you’re right. If we’re going to have a discussion, it might be more productive after counselling. And not just me. I want you to go too.”

“My issue is that I have all these problems that I want to find practical solutions to. But whenever I start to think about them, I become nauseous.

for whatever reason, investigating the person I just told you about takes my mind off it. I don’t really understand it myself. But the result is that I’m able to get in touch with my life indirectly through someone else’s.

I want us to get along, I really do. It wasn’t easy for me to say that, but I had to. I just can’t have you give up on me. It would tear me apart.

Kido slapped his knees with finality and said, “I’m glad we could have this talk. So I guess we’ll be going separately to therapy, then.”

an email he happened to send Misuzu about seeing her on TV yielded a sudden breakthrough in the case.

Misuzu went on to describe another surprising development: someone had reported the Daisuké Facebook account as fake, and it had been temporarily blocked.

she had several years’ worth of unchecked messages, had gone back to the fake Daisuké account and located the same hidden folder. There, she found a warning message from a “Yoichi Furusawa,” the name written in Roman letters rather than Japanese script.

The message read: This is a warning from the legal representative. Erase this fake, imposter account immediately. If you do not comply, appropriate legal measures will be taken.

It was only natural to suppose that the account freeze had been this user’s doing. Misuzu’s intuition was that Yoichi was Daisuké himself.

Kido considered what the best approach would be for contacting the “legal representative,” Yoichi Furusawa. If he was Daisuké Taniguchi, it would be prudent not to bring up Kyoichi, since he would be averse to interacting with him.

“Yoichi Furusawa” replied that night just after 2:00 a.m., while Kido was asleep. “Oh boy,” Kido muttered when he saw the message the next morning. The “legal representative” displayed as much wariness as was to be expected,

“Yoichi Furusawa” began by saying that he doubted Kido was in fact a lawyer.

In his reply, Kido proposed that they talk on Skype. That way, the “legal representative” could check that Kido was who he claimed to be through the video feed.

While “Yoichi Furusawa” could not say who he represented, his client still sought the deletion of the Daisuké account and wished to know more about Daisuké’s death. Therefore, he would Skype Kido at 11:00 p.m. that night.

“So was I correct in supposing that you’re the legal representative of Yoshihiko Sonézaki?” Kido asked, not beating around the bush. “Yes,” the man immediately replied.

“As I explained by message, Daisuké Taniguchi passed away three years ago. His widow is seeking information about certain aspects of his life.” “Taniguchi-san . . . was . . . married?” “Yes. Married with two children.”

“Listen,” said Kido, “the deal that was made between Taniguchi-san and Sonézaki-san is none of my concern. But as a legal expert, I want him to be aware of certain problems that could arise when he dies and am willing to offer my advice pro bono.

“Have you met with Misuzu Goto?” the man asked with new authority, as though he had just absorbed the authentic manner of a legal representative from Kido.

“Does Goto-san really believe that that person on Facebook is Daisuké Taniguchi? Who exactly is behind that account? Kyoichi Taniguchi?”

My client is concerned about whether Goto-san is doing well.”

“. . . He says he’d like to apologize.”

“Also, my client says that, whatever happens, he doesn’t want you to tell Kyoichi Taniguchi that he can be reached this way.”

Mr. Sonézaki has consented to having Goto-san attend.

Kido and Misuzu coordinated their plans so that they could sit together on the Nozomi bullet train for Nagoya. Since she boarded at the Tokyo Station terminal and he farther down the line at Shin Yokohama, she was already there when Kido stepped onto the reserved-ticket car,

“I wish I could have gone there one last time before you quit. Your vodka gimlet was superb!” “Come on. I can make you one of those anytime. But I can’t drink when I’m working the bar, so next time let’s go out drinking together.”

Misuzu went on to complain how she had been forced to abandon the Daisuké account because of Kyoichi. He had been hitting on her with similar persistence, precipitating a huge argument.

“Women flock to Kyoichi. He’s not my type at all. Too much of a player. Daisuké is clumsy. He’s not all that handsome. And he’s the kind of guy that’s just begging to be made fun of. He asks for it, acting like he enjoys being the butt of everyone’s jokes.

The Daisuké Taniguchi that Misuzu was describing struck Kido as completely different from both the one that Kyoichi had griped about and the one Rié had heard about through Makoto Hara.

“Kyoichi just couldn’t stand that Daisuké was having sex with me. Like there was something inside him thrashing about in a mad frenzy.”

Have you heard of triangular desire? Was it René Girard? The idea is that human beings never desire

others one-on-one but develop an attraction for someone because there is a rival that wants them too.”

“This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I don’t hate my face, but it always seems to get me into trouble.

“He has a wife and child. You may be surprised to hear this, but I’ve always had a no-married-man policy.”

“Have you told him how you feel?” Misuzu fluttered her long lashes restlessly like a water bird startled into flight by a noise.

“Why did that Makoto Hara guy masquerade as Daisuké? I can understand

that he would want to get rid of his family register. But what was stopping him from making up a life story to his own liking?

There is a certain kind

of loneliness that can only be soothed by finding yourself within the tale of another’s trauma.”

there’s the Daisuké I knew back in the day, the ‘Daisuké Taniguchi’ that started a nice family in Miyazaki and died on the logging site, and then there’s the life of the real, current Daisuké we’re about to meet . . . It’s weird.”