Earthlings

Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings uses the annual Japanese Obon festival, a Buddhist tradition for honoring ancestors, to set the scene in the opening chapter. The Obon festival, traditionally celebrated in late summer, is a synthesis of ancient Japanese belief and Buddhist tradition that celebrates family ancestors and the dead. Over time, the festival has evolved into an annual family holiday, during which relatives gather to celebrate family and pay homage to their ancestors, cleaning and restoring graves, among other activities. In Earthlings, the family engages in their own traditions as well, including traveling to a nearby river, where Uncle Teruyoshi lights a small fire to guide their ancestors. The children then transfer that fire to a lantern that they take back to the house in hopes that their ancestors will find them more easily.

In the novel, the Obon festival also serves to introduce the narrative and critique the intense social pressures surrounding family and conformity. The novel’s first section is set during the annual family gathering in the mountains of Akishina, where rituals meant to honor lineage and belonging become sources of alienation for the protagonist, Natsuki. The event functions as a chance for extended family to catch up and an unofficial inspection, where relatives scrutinize the children’s development and adherence to expected social roles. This experience informs Natsuki’s later view of society as “a factory for the production of human babies” (35), a system that values individuals primarily for their utility in procreation and labor.

This critique is grounded in contemporary Japanese social realities. Japan is facing a significant demographic crisis, with one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a rapidly aging population. This has created a pervasive social anxiety that can intensify pressure on individuals, particularly during traditional family events like Obon, to marry and have children to continue the family line. In Earthlings, the seemingly innocent family reunion becomes a microcosm of this national pressure, illustrating how cultural traditions can be used to enforce rigid social expectations and marginalize those who do not conform.