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Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
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Trigger Warnings
Summary of trigger warnings
Discussion of topics including:
Bullying
Suicide
Abortion
Proper Nouns
Will be added to throughout the book.
Name
Reading
Notes
波多野祥吾
はたの しょうご
Narrator of Part 1 - one of the 6 candidates
嶌衣織
しま いおり
One of the 6 candidates
九賀蒼太
くが そうた
One of the 6 candidates
袴田亮
はかまだ りょう
One of the 6 candidates
矢代つばさ
やしろ つばさ
One of the 6 candidates
森久保公彦
もりくぼ きみひこ
One of the 6 candidates
鴻上達章
こうがみ たつあき
Hiring Manager
相楽ハルキ
さがら はるき
Famous singer
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
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Finished this week’s a lot quicker than last week’s! Ahh this book is really good.
Summary
And so it begins. The envelopes are out! I really am liking the kind of “show the bad details of a character and then flash forward to the future” way they seem to be going about this. I kind of wish that there was more of this section set in the meeting room, but then again it is quite short, and there’s plenty left to happen. The flashforward was quite a nice change of pace as well.
I think lifev said last week that the setting seemed really cutthroat and horrible even by japanese standards, and I really agree. They seem very aware of that even within the setting at the time. Add on to that what I think was discussion of 100 hours overtime a month at Spira… That salary better be absolutely huge to make up for it. I’m sure it definitely is.
I’m really curious (as the book intends to make me ofc) as to who is the blackmailer and who gets the job in the end. Of course they’re two different people it seems, and given neither seem to be 袴田, that narrows down the pool already. My first impression is that one of them will be 嶌, and I think that 波多野 is involved in it somehow as the kind of “straight man” that he seems to be set up as. Maybe 森久保 could be the one behind it? That seems like the obvious conclusion to draw early on though, so maybe it’s just a red herring. Will have to wait and see! I’m now buzzing to carry on but will try and devote my reading attention to other stuff over the next week because I don’t want to end up being ahead.
Last week someone brought up that the book may be a critique of Japan’s job system. I think there’s something similar going on when 久賀 says “if the person in question denies the charge, then it must be really just false accusation”. Japan has a tendency of burying and not speaking of inconvenient things, pretending they didn’t happen at all. I bet 久賀 had a fair share of doubt of his own words, so that counts as a lie as well - albeit a white one. (Unless he is the 犯人, in which case he is simply a jerk.)
In this chapter, 矢代 was acting very suspiciously. First searching for something on the floor, then aggressively confronting 袴田 about the charges. So… I guess the envelopes are not her doing, because that would be too transparent. Probably. In any way, I expect there will be an explanation for these later in the book. Like, maybe she herself was bullied back in school.
I’ve really enjoyed this week as well, looking forward to the next part!
I agree with @xxllua that 矢代’s actions are very suspicious. There are another “evidences” that are pointing at her. In the previous chapter she was the one who had a lot of connections and gathered information quickly. She also was quick to switch between “ally” and “enemy” modes. BUT I also agree it would be too simple. So if it is not her, I would say it is 嶌 just because she is the quietest one.
I liked 袴田’s development. First, he was portrayed as someone who managed to fix a conflict before it sparks in the first chapter, then we see that he really is a bully, and he is not even sorry, even after several years. I don’t like him, but he feels very real.
I just can’t imagine what salary would compensate 100 hours overtime. But I guess I cannot compare life in the Netherlands where many people choose working 4 days a week with Japan’s corporate culture.
Just to say on this I also thought that the reason 久賀 said this might be that he’s now aware that whatever bad stuff in his past might be brought up, so he’s trying to get ahead of it by dismissing the importance of whatever’s in any of the envelopes. Kind of to save his own skin. That’s what sprung to mind for me when reading it.
矢代’s actions make her seem very suspect, maybe too suspect, but I wouldn’t necessarily rule her out. I also don’t trust the rationale behind « 波多野 is writing the report afterwards, so it can’t be him ». Whoever the blackmailer is, they could be working in tandem; the blackmailer staying hidden to all, and whoever finally gets the job being designated as the « official culprit », and having recently passed away. Why ? I have no clear idea, but maybe all candidates will end up all being linked somehow to whatever wrong the blackmailer and « official » culprit were victimes of ?
I was a little surprised that 波多野 was sure almost immediately that the envelope was smuggled into the meeting room by one of the other applicants. In his place, I wouldn’t have ruled out the possibility that it was someone from the company so quickly. They seem pretty ruthless. For all we know, they like hiring people who are guilty of minor misdemeanors so that they can blackmail them into working 500 hour weeks or something.
Same here. The moment he said this, I started wondering how bad his own secret must be to pull such a blatant obfuscation tactic. After all, 袴田 had already confessed.
Me neither. I also think 森久保 has almost as many hints pointing at him as she does. He’s also one of the teams “research experts”, he arrived early and if I understood that part correctly, he was sitting by the wall where the envelope was found (blocking the other’s view of it during the first round of voting intentionally?).
Isn’t it 波多野? From the prologue, I’m understanding that this book is a “memoir” of the events. So I’m thinking he’s the one conducting the interviews. In the 2nd interview that we read in this chapter, 袴田 says several times 懐かしいなぁ, confirming this impression to me. Then when 袴田 asks the interviewer how he came here, by car? by train? by TAXI?? wow you people at Spiralink really have different salary than normal people haha
今日はここまで電車で来たの？ 車？ ……え、タクシー？ 都内からタクシー！ すごいな……やっぱ金持ちだなぁ。スピラの正社員は収入が違うよ。ははは、冗談冗談。
(Also I think this interview format is a bit stupid because they all have great profiles and they will all be great at different things, I feel like in the real world you would be more interested on how the person fits in with their colleagues and which specific role needs to be filled out at the moment and pick one of them based on that, not them deciding who deserves it more. But it’s fine I’ll let it go, ready to relax and watch their world burn!)
I’m not so sure about that personally, it reads to me like the identity of the interviewer in the flashforward parts is being deliberately obfuscated. We know it’s someone from the 6 in the first part, but besides that, it’s like there’s an effort to hide identifying characteristics. I might well be wrong and it may be 波多野, but in my internal thought I’m leaning towards it not being at this current moment.
That’s true, going back and rereading it another time it does seem to suggest that it’s him doing the interviews. Guess I was wrong and just reading too much into the presentation of the interview then
I don’t really like how much the interviews (combined with the prologue) are giving away. If we accept that they’re accurate, that means we already know that 波多野 gets the job, that neither he nor 袴田 are the culprit, and that the contents of the envelopes are true (with maybe an exception for the culprit’s envelope or something). It seems weird to waste so many opportunities for tension . Hopefully the author has some good curve balls coming up…
I try once again to not ramble on in my comment and fail.
my thoughts
The HR guy giving off that detailed explanation is so ominous. Every new tidbit sounds exactly like a mysterious game when they’re describing the setup before the bad thing happens. I’m a little suspicious Spearlinks did this on purpose lol
Also I’ve been into Traitors recently so this round table is right up my alley. Especially this line: 被害者のような顔をして、この会議に劇薬を持ち込んだ裏切り者が── 犯人が、この中にいる。
For 就活 they’re still in school and grades don’t matter, so episodes play a big role but a lot of people just lie about being caption of some club or whatever lol
Part of this too is that for 新卒 they don’t really care what experience/major you had. You’re seen as a clean slate that can be raised in the company and turned into someone who contributes to the company.
It’s common too for older Japanese companies to prefer people who entered the company as 新卒 for higher-up positions. Spearlinks is a newer company though so that might not be the case for them.
I was assuming the perpetrators was just very good at research, but hearing they just contacted some and offered them money means I can’t even respect them for that.
The change in character in 袴田 is a little extreme for me, feels cartoonish how far it was taken, even though of course there are people like this in real life.
Also I read the interviews too as being done by 波多野. I like the formatting though, assuming they will continue to whittle down to who the culprit is.
That’s exactly what I thought as well! I feel like it must be a red herring, her acting suspiciously around the door, accusing 袴田 immediately, and also the use of mixi (SNS) to learn about the rumours about 袴田, it all points to her. So that would be too simple.
And from the interview with 袴田 8 years later, he kind of acts like I imagined him to be from chapter 1… the typical 陽キャラ that is a bit rowdy. I was really surprised to see two votes go to him since I expected more for 久賀 and 森久保, they seem really solid. But 森久保 could be the culprit too. He seems like the calculating type.
And I really thought we would get an explanation why 袴田 hated 佐藤 so much… I thought there would be a redeeming story that would excuse the bullying, but wow, 袴田 just straight up calling this guy weak for killing himself. that was a lot, and probably a bit unrealistic if there really is no backstory? No way he wouldn’t feel remorse if he didn’t have a really good reason for the いじめ against 佐藤.
And to be honest I could really relate to 袴田 when he talked about making up a fake サークル in your mind and convincing yourself that it’s actually real by making up more and more details… I think humans are really good at changing their past memory, and it’s something you can’t really rely on.
I’m really enjoying the writing style a lot though, it’s very straightforward but also engaging, especially the interviews that only show the monologue of the interviewees. And seeing where everyone ended up 8 years later is also quite interesting. Now I want to know how 波多野 got the job.
But I guess I cannot compare life in the Netherlands where many people choose working 4 days a week with Japan’s corporate culture.
