45 pages • 1 hour read
Sayaka Murata, Transl. Ginny Tapley TakemoriConvenience Store Woman
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Keiko Furukura
Keiko Furukura is a 36-year-old Japanese woman who has worked at a convenience store, Smile Mart, her entire adult life. While everyone else her age is obsessed with getting a better job, getting married, or having children, Keiko is content to work at the store. To her, the store is more than a job—it is a calling. She considers herself “reborn” (14) after starting her career at the store, and she thinks that her “very cells exist for the convenience store” (109). The store offers structure and rules to live by, unlike the real world where nothing seems to make sense. Keiko knows she is abnormal by the world’s standards (and knows how she is supposed to act)—but struggles to understand why she needs to act a certain way. In the confines of Smile Mart, everything has a clear purpose: serving the needs of the store and its customers.
Keiko cannot understand conventional behavior and mimics her coworkers’ styles of speech and dress to perform social norms. She is observant and notices that others do the same in subtler ways. Because of the high turnover rate of convenience store employees, Keiko constantly absorbs new people into her own mannerisms (88). In doing so, she believes she can appear more “human.”
Keiko is the protagonist and narrator of Convenience Store Woman. As such, the text is subjective and shows only her understanding of the world. She often says she doesn’t understand human emotions or responses. While Keiko largely remains the same throughout the book, she does undergo a minor change. By quitting her job and attempting to at least present herself as “normal” to outsiders, she learns to have confidence in herself and not care about what others think. Thus, her arc is an internal one in which she learns to find her voice by letting others briefly take it away from her—only for her to assert herself in the end.
Shiraha
Shiraha is a man in his mid-30s who lacks a career path and love life. He is similar to Keiko in this regard and briefly works with her at Smile Mart. However, Shiraha has misogynistic views about women and believes that society has not changed since the Stone Age. He hates his sister-in-law and dreams of being a “parasite” to a woman to get back at her, as he believes she is parasitic toward his brother (86). Shiraha also stalks a customer and unnerves the female staff. After running into Shiraha and hearing his own views about the ways in which society imposes on him because he is abnormal, Keiko invites him to live with her. He is hesitant but agrees on the condition that she can hide him from the outside world (and his financial problems).
Shiraha alternates between being shy and being condescending. When Keiko points out flaws in his logic, he stammers; but when he regains his composure, he voices his views with confidence and puts down others whom he considers beneath himself (i.e., a majority of society). He notes that women are cruel to him because he is not as strong as other men, but he also acts as though he deserves to have any woman he wants.
Shiraha serves as a catalyst in the book for Keiko’s personal growth. His arrival disrupts Keiko’s life, as their relationship makes her see the realities of life in the convenience store. He also forces her to get a new job to support him. However, through their relationship, Keiko reclaims her purpose as a convenience store woman.
Keiko’s Sister
Keiko’s sister serves as a bridge between Keiko and the normal world. She lives a conventional life with a husband and newborn baby, but she also seems to understand Keiko and want to help her. She gives Keiko lies that she can tell other people to explain the things that they find abnormal about her (i.e., her lack of a career path and love life); however, she also hopes Keiko can be “cured” (90). Keiko thinks her sister only wants her to be happy but later realizes that her sister would rather she be unhappy in a traditional relationship. With this realization, Keiko is free to find her voice and declare her desire to work in a convenience store without feeling like she needs to answer to anyone.
Keiko’s sister is often nameless in the book (Keiko refers to her as “Mami” in dialogue but never in descriptions), because in a way, Keiko doesn’t see her as a full person. Since Keiko struggles to understand the rules of the normal world, she cannot understand why someone would choose to live the way her sister does. Thus, Keiko’s sister only exists as an extension of herself, a link between worlds. Keiko’s sister represents societal conventions.
The Other Convenience Store Workers
Throughout the book, Keiko has several different coworkers. Most of them are interchangeable to her, as there is high turnover at Smile Mart, with only Keiko having worked there since it opened. She has worked with a total of eight managers and feels “they are but one single creature” (35). In the convenience store, everyone is “continually replaced” by another worker (65) and becomes “equals” once they are in uniform—store workers rather than humans (34).
Keiko assumes that her coworkers share her sentiment and is disappointed upon learning that they socialize without her—that they are more interested in gossip than serving the store. It is Shiraha’s presence that alerts her of this reality. The other workers once represented a safe space for Keiko, a world free of the chaos and confusion of the outside world. They also offered her mannerisms to mimic and use in the outside world. Like Keiko’s sister, the other workers ultimately represent a bridge between two worlds.
