Pathway to Japanese Literature

Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.

MentorAuthor: Sasaki Kuni

Original Title	恩師
Author	佐々木邦
Genre	Modern Short Fiction
Author Type	Male Author
Summary	In the shadow of Japan’s bleak economic downturn, a university student grapples with the crushing weight of impending graduation. Job prospects, once abundant for even mediocre graduates, have evaporated into a ruthless competition where only the top students survive corporate culls. The narrator, convinced of his cursed luck and academic mediocrity, resigns himself to failure—until his tenacious friend Hamaguchi drags him into applying for Fuji Shōji, a second-tier Osaka firm. Their desperation collides with a twist: the company seeks middling students with sharp English skills, a glimmer of hope in a merciless hiring climate. \nAmidst grueling interviews and bureaucratic hurdles, the narrator’s past resurfaces when he encounters a former teacher he once helped oust—a man now evaluating his fate. Romantic tensions simmer with Kiyoko, a sharp-witted lodger whose future intertwines with his uncertain career. As rejection seems inevitable, an unexpected victory upends his resignation, leaving him torn between elation and dread. Balancing fragile hopes and lingering self-doubt, he steps into a precarious adulthood where every triumph feels borrowed, and stability remains a mirage in Japan’s economic wasteland.