I wasn't sure I'd like this one as the reviews were quite mixed but I found it quite dreamy, in a depressing way. We follow three coworkers, Nitani, a young man who survives on instant food and pot noodles, Oshio, a young woman, and Ashikawa, another young woman and a talented baker who enjoys baking for the office.

Nitani and Oshio often go for drinks together, and Oshio complains about Akishawa, who leaves work early or calls in sick regularly, feeling unwell, tired, having a migraine or something. Nitani and Oshio stay in the office later and later to pick up the pieces, and Akishawa turns up the following day with what age has had time to bake the previous evening: lemon madeleines, muffins, grape tartelettes...

There's a lot about the drudgery of work and how soul crushing it is to come in day after day to socialise with people you haven't chosen, staying late, Nitani not wanting to spend any time cooking and cleaning up when he leaves the office after 11pm. The plot wasn't much but I enjoyed the boredom and quiet sadness of it.

There are some lovely passages in May You Have Delicious Meals, and the aim of building an inspection of the trials of office politics and work/life balance around food and our interaction with it was instantly compelling. But despite some moments of real literary uniqueness, I can't help but feel that this was lacking in a few distinct areas. The characterisation is very limited, even for the core characters, and it never quite pushes far enough into absurdism to justify its idiosyncratic style of storytelling.

A promising novella, but ultimately one that left me wanting more.

This was a novella that reads quite quickly! It follows a trio of workers in an office, and the relationship they have with each other, with food and with office politics.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

I had high hopes for this one but unfortunately found myself underwhelmed. It’s a short little book about office politics and the culture of food at work in Japan, and usually such a niche little topic would be right up my alley. But I found myself bored by the office drama, with none of the characters having any redeeming qualities. It just plods along, and I was quite glad to be done with it by the end. Not for me, but could be for you!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC!

This book explores day to day life in a Japanese office, and honestly, it was as boring as I imagine office life to be. I do understand what it is aiming to achieve and give insight to, and I didn't completely dislike it, but it was really slow and difficult to get into.

With "May You Have Delicious Meals", Junko Takase manages to build a fascinating existential reflexion inside a seemingly mundane office environment. By juxtaposing an individual who hates consuming food and being consumed by the necessity for feeding oneself; and another, who lives to produce beautiful meals and snacks, Takase studies the human obsession with perfection, the nature of addiction – and the exhausting social codes of Japanese workplaces.

Not only is this story interesting for its deeper thoughts and musings on the meaning of food, nutrition, eating and sharing food as a cornerstone of human connection, but it also reveals the inner workings of a Japanese office – the most toxic and all-consuming environment of all, where most individuals spend the remainder of their lives.
Takase has crafted a complex protagonist who is unlikable but honest and an interesting case study in all his contradictions, and constructed a beautiful triangle with two opposing characters, whose similarities are also revealed as events unravel and truths are revealed about all three.
The intensity and punctual impact of Takases ideas and plot lines are suitable for a short and sweet read, so the length of the story was also well-chosen.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese culture and literature!

In May You Have Delicious Meals, Junko Takase offers a keenly observed and subtly subversive look at the power dynamics and social expectations that shape office life, all wrapped in the guise of a workplace drama about food, relationships, and personal boundaries. Set in a Saitama office, the story follows Nitani, a man caught between two very different women who represent the contrasting forces of conformity and rebellion in the workplace.

Ashikawa, sweet and obliging, is the kind of woman Nitani feels he should marry: a traditional figure who brings homemade baked goods to the office, winning over colleagues with kindness and sugary treats rather than actual work. Nitani, who is struggling with his own feelings of dissatisfaction and burnout, begins to lose respect for her, seeing in her kindness an extension of the office's oppressive, work-first ethos. He’s tired of the pressures to be “good” and productive, and finds himself craving something less predictable and more liberating.

Enter Oshio, the bolder, freer woman who becomes Nitani’s drinking buddy. Where Ashikawa follows the rules, Oshio is a rule-breaker, someone who isn’t afraid to show her unfiltered self in a workplace that demands conformity. Their growing closeness serves as a quiet rebellion against the rigid office dynamics, with both characters struggling to navigate a culture that values discipline over self-expression. As their bond deepens, they find themselves balancing between the indulgence of their after-hours freedom and the unrelenting demands of their office lives.

Takase’s writing is both perceptive and delicate, capturing the absurdities and tensions of modern life with a sharp, almost comedic touch. The workplace, with its subtle pressures and social rituals around food, becomes a microcosm of larger societal dynamics—where appearance, control, and conformity clash with the yearning for authenticity and personal connection. The inclusion of food is not just a way to bring the characters together, but also serves as a metaphor for the indulgences and restrictions that shape their lives.

I love workplace novels and this one was no exception. Absurdist and refreshing. Can we a tad slow but once you got into the rhythm of reading it I couldn’t put it down.

Overall I would say I enjoyed reading May You Have Delicious Meals but it wasn’t a story I was itching to pick up and it took me a lot longer than it should have to finish given how short it is.

I almost felt it was a little underdeveloped particularly Nitani’s character as there was so much more than could have been done there in terms of his feelings towards food. Equally I feel like I expected it to be a bit more weird and in reality it was quite a mundane read!

I really wanted to enjoy this book as the blurb was interesting but I struggled with it's cadence and found it difficult to get into.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This book has a very interesting concept, but I don't quite think this was a hit for me.

I have read a lot of books centring around Japanese culture and food this year, and I definitely enjoyed some of the other books more.

I have given this book 3 stars as I did enjoy the writing and the premise of this book, but I don't it does anything more for the topics involved in it's narrative. I also don't think I enjoy books about food as much as I think I do which is my own issue!

May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase, translated with finesse by Morgan Giles, is a subtle yet impactful novel that explores the quiet complexities of everyday office life. The story revolves around three co-workers, with alternating perspectives from two characters who share a mix of intrigue and distaste toward a third colleague, creating a dynamic that is both peculiar and slightly unsettling. Written in a straightforward style, the novel’s humor and realistic tone accentuate a subtle bleakness, highlighting the small absurdities and unspoken tensions of ordinary relationships. Her storytelling makes the familiar feel both amusing and discomforting, drawing readers into a refreshingly honest look at the mundanity of work life.

During the last year it seemed as if every Japanese translation was in the genre of "before the coffee get's cold" episodic feel good novels or thrillers. I am tired of the convenience stores of hope by the seas, the pottery shops of dreams, the moonlight cafes, the laundromat stores of friendship and all the libraries of wishes. I want modern everyday life of some rando to show me life in japan. "May you have a delicious meal" is exactly what I was looking for. Nitani is an office worker and we're following him along as the situation with some work colleagues takes a turn. I found the passive-aggressive behavior and mobbing at work quite an interesting topic. All the office rules were super intriguing to me and I could relate feeling frustrated if one individual wasn't participating. Reminded me of Emi Yagi's Diary of a Void. Nitani as a person who is not fond of food was also an interesting change in japanese perspective. This Akutagawa prize winning novel was something else and I am so thankful for it. Unfortunately the style of writing makes it kinda hard to follow along. It took me a while to get into this. Maybe this is the fault of the translation?

The book is a look into the life of some Japanese office workers and their relationships with each other, their customs and food.

I enjoyed finding out more about Japanese culture and, even though parts of it directly translated well into English, much of it just felt a bit flat in my opinion.

It is a short read, there's nothing massively captivating about the story but I did become somewhat invested in Natani and Oshio. Parts of the story made me laugh as they resonated with personal experience - the praising of home cooked food for example, but not enough took place for this to be a story I rate highly.

A nice short piece of Japanese fiction. I did enjoy this overall, it’s an interesting story about working life in a Japanese office and the different roles that people and their food play and the dynamics this may cause. I enjoyed the characters and the plot, mainly the descriptions of the different kinds of people that exist in a work place.

A novel about the small ways people can irritate us at work.
Oshio suggests she and her male college bully their coworker who has ways of getting under everyone's skin even though there is no discernable reason why.

I loved this, it's writing is subtle but Takase has a really talent for getting you to read between the lines, and what isn't written is almost as important as what is. I only wish they were saw more of the coworkers being bullies/inconsiderate/belittle of Nitani, honestly this book could have been another 100/200 pages and I think it would have been perfect! But still a brilliant read!

May You Have Delicious Meals captures Japan's somewhat stifling work culture and it's links to food with the protagonist Nitani despising food seeing it as a chore much preferring the ease of a pot noodle in the time it takes to make and the fact it fills him up, despite this he starts to date beloved foodie Ashikawa who keeps bringing in cake and other baked goods into the office to make up for leaving work on time without doing the perceived obligated over-time everyone else is doing.

An interesting thought-provoking novel.

There seems to be quite a thing about Japanese novels based on food and this is a typical example of the genre, focusing on food in the workplace and its place in establishing relationships, hierarchies, respect and promotions.

So, when the boss says “we’re going out to eat”, it is risky to decline. Nitani, the central character, does exactly that, right at the start of the story, and as the rest of the office workers cheerfully return you can see where this is going.

Nitani is not a connoisseur of food and could be addicted to pot noodles but he gets on with his job. Ashikawa, on the other hand, is fragile, a cry baby who does not work long hours like everyone else. She lives with her parents and she should be a problem for HR! She survives by bringing in delicacies for the office, beautifully cooked and presented which everyone simply has to love and, increasingly, her snacks dominate the working day.

Oshio, another female colleague, can’t stand her and sees through her, while liking Nitani, but he is drawn to Ashikawa’s helplessness and her food, and is gradually pulled in to her web in spite of his efforts not to be.

As it continues, food dominates the story as Ashikawa cooks for Nitani as well as the office. Nitani is confused, might be better off with Oshio, but he can’t escape the clutches of Ashikawa.

It’s an amusing story and revealing about Japanese culture as well as food. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you think Ashikawa is a sweetie or a monster and if you work in an office with a fridge, labelled food and the occasional rage over food thefts you’ll enjoy it.

I worked in a Japanese office for two years, and this short novel does well to capture the stifling conformity of the culture. It’s kind of a bizarre love triangle, where one corner embraces the roles and routines of office life, another just wants to throw a (metaphorical) brick through them, and the third wavers between the two. It’s quite a downbeat book, with a pretty cynical and jaundiced view of life, but an enjoyable one.

"May You Have Delicious Meals", though based in the Japanese office-environment, seems to revolve around another, more universal principle - that attitudes around food tell quite a story about an individual's approach to self, life and others.

The cast of three characters - Nitani, Ashikawa and Oshio - showcases it quite well. Nitani seems to despise not only food, but the pleasure of it whilst his matrimonial interest, Ashikawa, is immersed in the world of flavours. In this coupling Nitani expresses two contradicting attitudes - one is to go with societal expectations to find himself a proper wife, the other feels like a silent protest and treating Ashikawa's cooking and feeding like an attack on his autonomy. There's also Oshio, who represents more modern attitudes towards life, for whom food doesn't seem to function as either positive or negative obsession, but she surely likes her drink. But she isn't a type of woman that men like Nitani are supposed to marry.

Yet, even though the concept was interesting, "May You Have Delicious Meals" is not a memorable novel.