This collection of almost novella-length short stories affected me deeply .. people recovering from personal loss... asserting or being defined by flawed personalities with painful decisions and their outcomes etched out. The redeeming outcomes rest in their increasing self awareness (but we see more about them than they know themselves!) A down and out divorcee, sinking into personal negativity loses her supporter; a taciturn male divorcee is uplifted by an insightful young, beloved daughter; etc ... the emotional.impact is strong, reading this deftly written set of stories. It all surprised me, thinking it was going to just be another 'exotic' Japanese-set group of stories when I started reading .. but, nothing exotic at all .. the author brings it home. Stunning!

Vibrant and off-kilter, a slap upside your head
—
Having up close and personal experience of East Asian societies, this must have been an utter shock when it was first published in super-homogenised Japan in 2000. In this first-ever English translation, Yamamoto gives us five clear-eyed portraits of working (and not) women who buck the Japanese social system of daughter/worker/wife/mother to survive the world as they are.

As in all Japanese novels and short stories (and for mainland Chinese and Korean ones too), context is everything: although translated for an English reading audience, there is enough left out that the casual reader might not see through the resulting gaps to find the square-peg-in-a-square-hole that is Japan and therefore miss the collision between social expectations and the behaviour or these women. I won’t go into the details of each part because that would give away too much from these vibrant and off-kilter stories, stories that still have the power to slap you upside the head.

I found The Dilemmas of Working Women a very interesting read. I was not expecting to enjoy the novel as much as I did but I am really glad that I read this novel.

The novel is lots of short stories about the women of Japan and I was enchanted by each story.

A collection of thought-provoking women that each had a very different story to tell. I think that this novel will be relevant to many women all over the world.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Marketed as a collection of feminist short stories about women who are ‘ambivalent about their lives and jobs’ [Storygraph’s Blurb of the collection], Yamamoto’s collection serves to present five stories of women skirting around the edges of societal norms where the weight of judgemental eyes and peer pressure to rejoin society bring into question their desires, identity, and choices moving forward.

Each of the stories are based around an interesting hook – e.g. an unemployed divorcé takes up crafting stuffed animals to fill her days; a cancer survivor copes with lingering pains while her friends and family push her to stop talking about it and get a job; a woman who hesitates to accept her boyfriend’s proposal after having an affair; etc. While Yamamoto certainly packs a punch with the inner conflicts of each story’s inner conflicts and individual female characters at the centre of them, each ultimately falters to wrap up the stories in a satisfying way.

Moreover, Yamamoto seeks to put the focus more on the inner turmoil and conflict these women face in their situations around work, family and society but often leaves the threads of ideas unfinished and conflicts abandoned, making them seem more akin to shock value to provoke a reaction rather than intended commentary on the individual experiences of each protagonist.

I will make the point that, upon reflecting on each of the stories individually, they each manage to make their points and criticisms clear of those who judge women for deciding to live beyond the norms of modern society, which I’d argue is the reason to pick them up in the first place (and I’d recommend you do if the subjects interest you enough). However, the saying persists – a story is only a good as it’s ending – and in each of these stories, Yamamoto just manages to miss the mark on giving her characters a proper send off.

I’ve broken down my criticisms for each of the stories individually below (Spoilers Ahead).

Story One: Naked [3/5]
Naked is what I would consider a great opening to a collection directed at the lives of ‘Working Women’, since it discusses the shift of going from employment to unemployment and the surge of freedom and opportunity that comes from the relieving of corporate work. Izumi, after her divorce from her husband and subsequent unemployment, finds herself happily enjoying her newfound freedom and lack of routine, only suffering the continuous concerns from her close friends about her finding work again, until she is reunited with an old colleague and the weight of everyone’s concerns begins to wear her down.

The opening story looks into the breakdown of Izumi’s desire to find work after years of solely focusing on proving herself, bettering herself, and living for the purpose of work, up to the point of the breakdown of her marriage and her eventual burn out. I enjoyed how she devoted herself to the mundane and making small stuffed animals, something that somehow connects her to her old work but removes all ties to investment and profit, however Izumi’s story just falls short of sticking the perfect landing. While conclusions are vaguely drawn as to Izumi’s uncertainty of her future and her relationship with Little Ken, the final lines feel too much like a purposeful cut off from a flowing narrative so we can progress to the next story.

Story Two: Planarian (2.75/5)
I found myself sympathizing and relating to the protagonist, who following surgery has been stuck in a limbo of constant pain, fatigue, nausea while everyone around her seems to believe with her cancer cured (or at least out of imminent danger) that she should move on and stop talking about it.

While I connected with her, as someone who’s been dealing with their own struggles with far less life-threatening pains and symptoms, much like in Naked, Yamamoto seems rather keen to linger on the protagonists lingering in a limbo of ‘everyone else must be right’ paired with a lack of decisive action until the final pages of the story. I understand structurally why this is done, ideally to create some sense of victory over the constant pressure and outside judgement, however it leaves a poor taste in the mind from what remains a rather impactful look at the expectations of cancer survivors needing to bounce back once they’re no longer dying only for the reality to be a lingering pain that, in this case, isn’t easily solvable or treatable.

Story Three: Here, Which is Nowhere [2.5/5]
A mother who is ignored by her children and husband and simultaneously dislikes being bombarded at work by her colleagues at her part time job and the convenience store is the simple premise of this collection’s third story.

Moreso than the previous stories, the nature of the demonstrating a woman’s hardships within modern society through a somewhat matter of fact lens with a swift and sudden conclusion rings more harrowing than the previous two efforts. Maybe that’s due to the simple fact that it is the third story to follow this path, or perhaps it simply mirrors better examples of feminist literature about desperate mothers trapped under the rule of patriarchal family dynamics with a lack of flare and original detail, or, as proven in the earlier stories, a conclusion that serves to satisfy the demonstration of the intended message.


Story Four: The Dilemmas of Working Women [3/5]
The title story for this collection ends up being an example of the collections strengths, with continuous build-up of frustration culminating in a refreshingly satisfying ending. Like the previous stories, this doesn’t quite hit the mark throughout but does perhaps the best job of tying together each of the narrative’s incidents to its main arc – that being whether or not the Mito will accept her boyfriend’s proposal.

Story Five: A Tomorrow Full Of Love [2.5/5]
The only story told from the perspective of a man, the concluding story to Yamamoto’s collection serves as a nail in the coffin of the collection’s flaws.

The woman of the story, Sumie, is unemployed, homeless and devotes her life to simply existing in the world and giving palm reading to patrons at Majima’s izakaya. She is a free spirit, and Majima, our narrator, cannot understand her. Like the collection’s other narrators/protagonists, he exists in a vacuum of indecisiveness and frustration with the world, but whereas the other stories focus on that through the women who are being judged, mistreated and handed endless expectations, we are instead left to sit with a man who seems utterly incapable of understanding Sumie, his feelings towards her, and his own loneliness while he suffers through his own dislike of the world he inhabits.

Oh baby. This is very well translated, emotionally invoking and ultimately hits a little too close to home for me on some levels. Each story is about the issues Japanese women face, and some I'd argue all women face. Some followed what they were supposed to do, and it failed. Others have had something terrible happen and aren't ready to recover yet. This is a depressing book, but you feel the character's helplessness. And yes, some of it is self-manufactured, but a lot of it is women being stuck where they are and no one being willing (or able to in the second story's case) to get out of it, bearing going 'get back on your feet'.

There is a lot in this book about the dangers of passiveness, and boy, that stings a little.

I enjoyed this book a lot, it was nice to see more of a glimpse in to the world of women in Japan without the cute/magical realism element that is present in so many books.
Despite being a book written quite some time ago it felt ageless and a sad reflection on life in that nothing has really changed

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. I thought the author did a great job of showing different aspects and struggles faced by the modern woman.
From the repurcussions of a recent divorce and loss of their career, to a woman being pressured to return to work after a battle with cancer. These stories felt real and honest and each character was interesting.
The writing was easy to follow and helped to pull me into the narrative of each of these characters and really create a unique voice for each of them.
Overall I had a really good time with this book.

A collection of five different short stories where they explore what it means to be a modern woman in Japan, focusing on the tension between career ambitions and societal expectations. There’s constant pressure to succeed professionally while also living up to traditional roles at home; balancing success, relationships, and identity.

What’s interesting is that although the story often feels bleak, it’s deeply emotional. It highlights the quiet resilience of all the female characters. Their struggles are raw and real not dramatic.

It’s not giving a “girlboss” kind of vibe. It’s sad, validating, and honest.

In one of the stories titled Planarian our protagonist can’t let go of her illness which she recovered from, It becomes her entire personality. And another story titled Naked, talks about a freshly divorced and unemployed woman, facing a quiet battle against gender roles and double standards.

These stories made me realize how many women suffer in silence, often under the pressure of meeting society’s expectations. This collection of stories does not try to glamorize anything. It just tells the truth quietly.

A wonderful collection of short stories about women navigating work, love, loneliness, and all the weird, messy in-betweens. The characters aren’t perfect (far from it!), but that’s what makes them feel real. Some stories made me laugh, others made me pause and go, “Oof, I’ve been there.”

Yamamoto writes with this cool, honest tone that doesn’t try to explain or fix anything, she just lets the women be. It’s sharp, relatable, and oddly comforting if you’ve ever tried to juggle career expectations and real life.

A quick, thought-provoking read I’d definitely recommend to friends over brunch.

I didn’t think I’d feel this seen by a book that came out more than twenty years ago, in a completely different cultural setting, but here we are.

The Dilemmas of Working Women is… I don’t know, like opening a drawer that I’ve been keeping shut for years. Every story has this little "violence" in it—the kind you feel when you’re trying to do everything "right" as a woman who works, who wants to be something more than her job, but who is constantly measured against some invisible scorecard.

Reading it, I kept thinking of how much of myself I’ve cut into neat, presentable pieces just to fit into work spaces, social spaces, family spaces. Yamamoto writes these women as if she’s been sitting beside them all their lives, taking notes on all the humiliations that seem small from the outside but stack up into a kind of existential exhaustion. And she does it without any melodrama. It’s very Japanese in that way; so much restraint, but also so much bite if you slow down and listen to the words.

The first story, <i>Naked</i>, completely gutted me. This woman whose life has come apart, who is left with nothing but this absurd, almost pathetic craft project, and somehow that becomes a way of existing. And then <i>Planarian</i>—God, that one. The idea of wanting to be a flatworm just so you can keep regenerating, keep coming back even when life slices you into pieces. It sounds ridiculous until you realize, oh, I’ve wished for that too, just in a less literal way.

There’s a part of me that envies how Japanese literature can hold contradictions like this: deadpan humor and real despair, longing and resignation, all without trying to resolve it. I think that’s why it feels so modern even now. There’s no moralizing, no "you can do it!!" pep talk. It just lets these women be messy and unfinished and quietly angry.

As someone who works (and maybe overworks), I felt myself reading with my whole body. It’s not a loud kind of identification, more like a low hum under the skin: yes, this is how it feels to live like this. And there’s also something weirdly comforting in realizing that women halfway across the world, decades ago, were already negotiating these same unspoken bargains with the world.

This is the kind of book I’ll be thinking about when I’m on my commute, or sitting in another meeting where I feel like a stranger in my own life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this collection of short stories which all focus on (not surprisingly) the dilemmas of the working woman in Japan.

All the stories have something to recommend them dealing with various aspects of a woman's life - Izumi in Naked who, having divorced, finds herself unable to motivate herself to go back to any meaningful employment; Haruka in Planarian who has had breast cancer but, despite being clear, continues to use it as a reason not to stick at any work to Sumie in A Tomorrow Full of Love, who lives a precarious lifestyle moving where she likes, with whom she likes and doing whatever job suits her at the time.

The thing I liked about all the women is that they were all so unapologetic to the men/parents in their lives. They wanted to live their way and they did.

Definitely a very interesting look at modern women in the workplace. I would recommend this collection.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Brown Book Group for the advance review copy.

Brilliant! Illuminating five short stories of five very different women and how they navigate the situations they are in. The Translator's Afterword also made for great reading.

An English translation of the Japanese bestseller. Five short stories following women in modern Japan as they navigate their careers, relationships and family lives.

Naked: Izumi, divorced and unemployed, struggles to adjust to her new life.
Planarian: Haruka, recently recovered from cancer but everyone thinks she needs to forget about it and move on.
Here Which is Nowhere: Kato, a working woman who is largely ignored by her children and husband.
The Dilemmas of Working Women: Mito, deciding whether or not to accept her boyfriend’s marriage proposal despite the fact that she has been cheating on him for months.
A Tomorrow Full of Love: Sumie, a palm-reader who rejects societal expectations.

My favourites were Naked and Planarian.

My main take away from this collection is how different attitudes toward romantic relationships, sex, and work is for women in Japan compared to in the UK. It was difficult for me to relate to a lot of the views presented throughout the book, however, it was incredibly interesting to read about everyday life for women in a different culture to mine, although these particular stories were rather downbeat and mundane.

Having said that, I did enjoy it. Where this book falls down is with the narration of each story. There is no discernible difference between each narrative voice, despite being told from the point of view of very different characters. It is possible that this element has been lost in the translation, but it made it very difficult to differentiate between the characters in each story. The only way I knew that I was reading the next story was when character names suddenly changed.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Japanese novels somehow give me that very slow calming feeling when I read, is it the way of writing or is it just the way things go? Maybe one thing different is there are never vulgarities (in most of the books I have encountered so far). There are never really much slang as well, just old school proper language to write the story. Perhaps I am too much of a romantic, but this really gives the story a different mood and a different pace. And the stories were relatable, real, and I could imagine each of the the different characters stuck in their dilemmas.

At first I was slightly confused if the stories were of the same person, or linked, but I realised they were not, but otherwise, I enjoyed the book.

This book consists of 5 short stories centred on women facing different difficulties in their lives.
I didn't initially realise this was written in 2000, as I think most of it still rings true these days.
The book felt a bit mundane which I realise was the point. I didn't mind it - I'd round up to 3.5 stars if I could.

Five different women navigating their different lives, caught in perfect moments by the author. I really do enjoy reading about different cultures especially Japan, whereas life is not the same, it is the same. 4 stars. Recommend.

5 short stories which are unconnected, the first 4 featuring women, the last a man.

Out of all the stories the first was definitely my favourite. This one felt the closest to the title of the book and what I had expected. The second was the worst IMO, as the main character was insufferable. All of the stories feature people struggling with expectations and passivity, but that one took it to another level.

I wish that there had been different conclusions to some, particularly number 3, but at the same time I respect the decision to end them this way. Overall, this was a quick and unusual read which turned out to be very different than I had expected; this is not the typical translated happy book I’ve read a lot of.

Exactly as described on the tin, 'The Dilemmas of Working Women' is a collection of short stories about common problems/decisions women need to make just in life, in general. Granted there are a couple of cultural differences, but I thought the stories felt very true to the typical female experience in sometimes, what feels like a world that doesn't understand us. From a housewife who "has all the time in the world" to an unemployed divorcee struggling to find motivation, I could relate to aspects of all of these short stories and had an enjoyable time reading each one. One caveat to this book however (and I think this goes for a lot of Japanese translated books) is that the writing is quite direct and straightforward, so if you're looking for more descriptive and poetic language, I don't think this would be one for you.

A series of short stories reflecting the complications of modern life in Japan. Could they be relatable to modern life in the west? My feeling is that these are quite culturally specific in time and place. There are some issues,particularly related to romantic love which are dealt with openly, but coyly referred to like ‘using professionals’ instead of talking of prostitution. Sex is something which is spoken about rather coldly, and an inevitable end to an evening, even between strangers. In most of these stories there is detachment and disappointments, a gulf of misunderstanding and dishonesty. Each of these stories leave you wanting more. There is nothing wrapped up about their endings, they leave the reader forced to make her own conclusions.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I did not realise that these are unconnected short stories, i thought the book was about a group of friends interacting or perhaps stories from each point of view but with mentions of the other characters.

The stories are interesting giving some insight to Japanese culture but I felt detached from all the characters and the stories just stop with no clear indication of what will happen next to the characters. I found this unsatisfying as I felt I did not really know the characters well enough to even hazard a guess at how their lives might unfold. As in the Convenience Store woman there seems to be a bleakness and hopelessness in these stories, I don't know if that is a Japanese thing but it is a bit unnerving.

The blurb says that the stories are funny/witty; I did not notice any humour or particular wit but maybe that is just me.