I haven’t written a full review in a long time so this might take a while for me to keep coming back to between work etc, but I feel like I need to write one for this book.

There’s a few cultural concepts in Japan that knowing about before reading will make your experience much more rounded. I’ll add I’m no expert, just someone who likes anime, manga, and Japanese literature so I’ve picked up a bit of cultural context.

Firstly Karoshi which is the concept of working oneself to death. Shibata takes on a job and before you know it she’s expected to do not just her duties as her role would suggest, but also all the domestic tasks around the office. She works long hours with lots of overtime but little free time to herself. She describes her colleagues as looking ill, as many have worked there for a long time. This is (or perhaps was) seen as normal way of life for the salary man. You’d join a company right out of university and you’d work there your whole life, working from the bottom up the company. Putting in those extra hours garnered you favour with your superiors which helped with promotions etc. 

Secondly, it is still very typical (although decreasing) for women to leave work once married as historically, particularly through Japans economic boom, men would earn enough for their wives to become homemakers. If women didn’t leave as soon as they, married they would leave as soon as children were on the way. Japan still has quite a traditional patriarchal society in many ways. 

Thirdly there is the falling birth rate in Japan which is causing the government some consternation. They’re worried about the aging population, who is going to care for all the elderly people if they don’t have children to look after them? Children seen as somewhat precious as a result. The result of this has been a great shift in the workplace for mothers and expectant persons, improving work and home life balance and childcare availability. 

So Diary of a void is the story of Shibata using a lie of being pregnant to get out of  doing the extra domestic tasks around the office that were expected of her as a female junior employee. Once the other perks, getting to finish on time instead of several hours later materialised, she decided to keep the lie going. It is a commentary on modern Japan for the single working woman, expectations, and social norms. As the lie evolves it’s fun to see how Shibata copes and expands the narrative to keep it all up for her boss and co-workers. 

Personally I loved all of this. If only it would be so easy to carry out such a plot in real life.