Tokyoites: A Portrait of Tokyo Through Its People

A proposal for a new project

Dear readers, I have spent the last few weeks working on a new project that, with your support, I hope to showcase in Tokyo Calling.

As the title of this post says, it’s called Tokyoites: A Portrait of Tokyo Through Its People. It’s a book-length project in which I am going to feature interviews with people who live and/or work in Tokyo.

My aim is to show what it’s like to live in Tokyo right now, through the words of people themselves. It gives the reader a feeling about their motives, aspirations and fears, and their contrasting opinions on local and national politics, the economy and society.

This is a wide-ranging selection where the reader finds both the good and the bad; uplifting stories and darker tales of people caught while trying to make sense of this city.

Each interview reads like a short self-contained story but taken together they show the multi-faceted picture of a complex, contradictory city.

Most books on Japan focus on its history, culture and cuisine. However to many people the Japanese are still a bit of a mystery. Western media in particular like to focus on the weird side of life in Japan. Tokyoites is a way to introduce the readers to real stories from real people; stories that show how people with different customs and social values tackle everyday life's big and small challenges. 

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Actually, you have already had a chance to read a few of those stories:

Architect Kuma Kengo talking about his love for Tokyo and expectations about future urban planning.

85-year-old cheerleader Takino Fumie explaining why getting old is not necessarily a bad thing.

Documentary director Thomas Ash talking about his fight to help refugees and asylum seekers.

Actress Hasegawa Chisa introducing the world of pink films.

This is the table of contents for this book/project. It is still a work in progress which means I may add or change a few entries, but this is basically how the book is going to look:

• Introduction

• A note about Tokyo (23-ku, Tokyo Metropolis, Greater Tokyo Area)

(1)   ARRIVING

1a. Arriving from London

1b. Arriving from the Philippines

1c. Arriving from Iran

1d. Arriving from somewhere in Japan

1e. Amnesty International / Refugee / immigration lawyer

(2) MAPPING THE CITY OUT

2a. Architect Kuma Kengo

2b. Azby Brown, expert in architecture and environmentalism

2c. Street photographer

2d. Living in the Tokyo suburbs

(3) GETTING AROUND

3a. Subway operator or bus driver or taxi driver

3b. Lost and Found clerk

3c. Cyclist

3d. Skater or BMXer

3e. Train Commuter

3f. Rickshaw driver

(4) SEEING THE SIGHTS

4a. Volunteer guide

4b. Tourist from abroad

(5) SHARING SPACE

5a. Share house resident

5b. Comparing homeless in London and Tokyo

5c. Estate agent

5d. Scenes from a marriage

(6) FEEDING THE CITY

6a. Chef

6b. Tsukiji/Toyosu Market

6c. Convenience store worker

6d. Worker in a lunch box-making factory

6e. Café owner

6f. Depachika

6g. The lone soy sauce maker in Tokyo

6h. Wagashi (Japanese sweets) maker

6i. Wine sommelier

(7) PLAYING AROUND

7a. Former geisha

7b. Burlesque artist

7c. Sea bass fishing guide

7d. Cosplayer

7e. Public bath owner

7f. Cheerleader

(8) SEX AND THE CITY

a. Bar hostess

b. Love hotel worker

c. Soapland worker

d. Pink film actress

(9) THE CITY’S SOUNDS

8a. Chindon’ya

8b. Jazz club owner

8c. Singer/voice actress

8d. Rock band or indie label owner / Carl Stone (Tokyo forgotten sounds)

8e. Club owner

(10) FINDING YOUR SOUL MATE

9a. Omiai match-making agency

9b. Being LGBTQ in Tokyo

9c. Woman married to a foreigner (or vice versa)

9d. Priest for hire

9e. Single 30-something woman

9f. Woman married to a fisherman in Hachijojima

9g. Friend for rent

(11) DROPOUTS / ON THE MARGIN

10a. Supermarket employee

10b. Homeless

10c. Net café refugee

10d. Mental health consultant 

10e. Sodateage.net, NPO helping hikikomori, NEETs, etc.

10f. Tattoo artist

(12) KEEPING PEOPLE SAFE

11a. Employee at Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park

11b. Home security expert

11c. Police officer

11d. Muslim suspect of terrorism (or first female Muslim lawyer, Hayashi Junko)

11e. NPO battling human trafficking

11f. Street protester

11g. COVID-19

(13) LIVING AND DYING

12.a 100-year-old society (Akiyama Hiroko)

12.b Danchi living

12c. Solitary death

(14) DEPARTING

13a. Allan who had enough of Tokyo

13b. Allan who misses Tokyo

***** My plan is to post one new story every week. All posts will be paywalled.

As you can see, there are a lot of stories in there, and I must admit I cannot do this without your financial support. Otherwise, my wife is going to kick my ass for “wasting” time on Substack instead of writing for money.

So here’s my proposal: in the next couple of weeks I will post the introduction to this book and the note about Tokyo where I’m going to define the borders of this all too often misunderstood city. In the meantime, if you haven’t read yet the four stories listed above, please check them out.

Next comes the important part.

Please answer this survey and let me know if you are interested and able to support this project, and how (read the survey for details). At this stage, I only need your pledge, nothing more.

Of course, those of you who have already been supporting Tokyo Calling through a paid subscription are already in, so you don’t have to pay more.

Right now, I have about 350 subscribers and I need at least 100 paid contributors/donators. If we reach 100, we are ready to go.

If we don’t reach 100, I will have to scratch this project. But don’t worry, I’ll get back to the usual routine of (mostly) free posts.

Thanks for your time. Please share this post with friends and other potentially interested people, and PLEASE answer my survey by the end of April. Whatever the result, it will help me understand my readers better and plan future projects.