The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada (translated by Margaret Mitsutani)
Publisher – Granta
Published – Out Now
Price - £9.99 paperback £7.14 Kindle eBook
Yohiro celebrated his hundredth birthday many years ago, but every morning before work he still goes running in the park with his rent-a-dog. He is one of the many aged-elderly in Japan and he might, he thinks, live forever. Life for Yoshiro isn't as simple as it used to be. Pollution and natural disasters have scarred the face of the Earth, and even common foods are hard to come by. Still, Yoshiro's only real worry is the future of his great-grandson Mumei, who, like other children of his generation, was born frail and grey-haired, old before he was ever young. As daily life in Tokyo grows harder, a secretive organisation embarks on an audacious plan to find a cure for the children of Japan - might Yoshiro's great-grandson, Mumei, be the key? A dreamlike story of filial love and glimmering hope, The Last Children of Tokyo is a delicate glimpse of our future from one of Japan's most celebrated writers.
One of the most disquieting things about the last decade is that we are starting to see stagnation in many societies. The idea that the next generation will always have a better outcome than the previous is starting to be seen as wrong – life expectancy, wealth and of course the world teetering on environmental collapse. In Yoko Tawada’s thoughtful novella The Last Children of Tokyo (translated by Margaret Mitsutani) we are taken on a family’s journey into a disquieting future.
Yoshiro is a man who has been blessed thanks to science already over a hundred years old and now finds himself tending to his frail grandson Mumei for the most recent generation in Japan are born with bodies that struggle to process food, walk or fight disease. We walk through the families’ past and future seeing how Japan has been changed by a warming climate, pollution and isolationism. Can anything thrive in the future?
This novella is very free flowing as we start with Yoshiro and then look back and forwards in time at various key members of the family. Tawada is exploring the idea of the babyboomer generation that is already a cause for concern in terms of elderly healthcare having a huge impacts on future generations. The lovely child Mumei has been damaged by the sins that previous generations have cast on the world weakening bodies and stealing their futures as they age so much quicker. This is a a story that talks of futures lost thanks to the selfishness of the past.
Nothing is too explicit in this story you just notice the food shortages; that kids cannot eat or process much food without hurting themselves or that words from other cultures are banned. It’s a tale of entropy with relationships failing, children losing their way as they grow up and we sense a world hat is crashing as the generation that may be most responsible for it have to see it happen. Its not a loud story and its matter of factness storytelling even as we see a loving relationship with grandfather and grandson makes it just more tragic.
This was a fascinating haunting novella that makes the near future quite disquieting and worrying which is the purpose of SF. To remind you that our present isn’t doing enough and there may be bitter consequences. In that I found it very successful storytelling. Lots of food for thought.
