Convenience Store Woman

Convenience Store Woman (2016) is a novel by Japanese author Sayaka Murata. The novel was a bestseller in Japan. In 2018, it became the first of Murata’s books to be translated into English, and it has since been translated into 30 additional languages. Murata herself worked at a convenience store and based aspects of the book on her own experiences. Convenience stores (or konbini, as they are familiarly known in Japan) are a ubiquitous feature throughout Japan and an essential part of Japanese consumer culture. The book explores the realities of working in a konbini and what it does to a person’s psyche. Convenience Store Woman won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2016 and was later adapted into a radio drama for NHK-FM in Japan.

This guide is based on the Kindle edition of the novel (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) published in 2018.

Plot Summary

Keiko Furukura is a 36-year-old woman who has been working at a convenience store, the Smile Mart, her entire adult life. Since Keiko was a child, she has felt different, separate, from others; she feels that the only way she can prevent others from being uncomfortable around her is by mimicking them and keeping her views about the world to herself. Keiko’s sister is supportive of her and offers excuses she can use to justify her life as an asexual 36-year-old with no “real” career, but Keiko knows her parents and friends are disappointed in her.

Smile Mart offers Keiko a manual to live by, guidelines outlined by corporate policy. Keiko models her speech patterns and style of dress on those of her coworkers. While Keiko’s friends comment on her mannerisms as always changing, she herself notices the subtle ways in which those around her change.

When Smile Mart hires a part-time employee named Shiraha who is around Keiko’s age and shares similar life experiences, Keiko’s coworkers note that he is “weird.” He unintentionally frightens women and claims the world is the same as it was during the Stone Age. After Shiraha gets fired, Keiko asks him to move in with her so they can fool others into thinking they are a couple and discourage questions about their lifestyles. However, they still face pressure from Keiko’s sister and Shiraha’s sister-in-law. To escape this pressure, Keiko agrees to quit her job to financially support Shiraha. But once she does, she feels disconnected from Smile Mart’s music and the sense of belonging it gave her.

Keiko manages to get a job interview, but she and Shiraha stop at a convenience store on the way to it. Immediately, Keiko starts to do tasks at the store. When Shiraha confronts her, she tells him that she doesn’t care about trying to fit into society with him anymore. She says she is a convenience store worker, cancels her interview, and decides to find a job at another convenience store.