An unnamed man returning to Tokyo after living in California for several years. He is currently drifting, having ended his relationship abroad, yet remaining unsure about staying in Japan. He struggles to communicate openly with his family and carries unspoken guilt over his long absence and his mother's death.

The deceased matriarch of the family whose absence looms over the household. She died after eating incorrectly prepared blowfish, an act she undertook to avoid offending a childhood friend. She frequently worried about her son and blamed herself for his prolonged absence.

A stoic man with a strong jaw who takes immense pride in his family's samurai blood. Recently unemployed after the collapse of his business firm, he spends his time building toy battleships and preparing meals in a largely empty house. He struggles to connect emotionally with his children, relying instead on traditional expectations and strict commands.

The narrator's younger sister, currently studying at a university in Osaka. She plays the role of an obedient, quiet daughter around her father but relaxes into a mischievous, smoking, talkative young woman in his absence. She is secretly torn between her father's expectation that she move home and her own desires for her future.

Father's business partner of seventeen years. After the collapse of their business firm, he ended his own life. Father describes him as a highly principled and honorable man, though his extreme actions following the business failure cast a dark shadow over the family's conversation.

Kikuko’s boyfriend who wants her to hitchhike with him in America after she graduates. His relationship with Kikuko represents one of the divergent paths she is considering for her future, though she harbors reservations about spending so much time with him.

The narrator's former girlfriend in California. Their relationship has recently ended, contributing to the narrator's feeling that he has nothing left tying him to the United States.