The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada

A original fable based in a near future dystopia

Yoko Tawada's recent work Memoirs of a Polar Bear is a unique novel narrated by three generations of one polar bear family. In The Last Children of Tokyo we're in more conventional hands, from a storytelling point of view, but Tawada's unique vision is just as strong.

The two protagonists, 100 year old retired author Yoshiro and his young grandson Mumei, represent the two extremes in Tawada's Neo-Japan. With the working aged population all working in agriculture in Okinawa, Tokyo is comprised of elderly but spirited morning joggers and fragile and sick youngsters. 

"Exposure to multiple health hazards from prolonged habitation"; Tawada's vision of Tokyo is bleak. Climate change, political isolationism, disease and economic regression have left society in dysfunctional place in which the old are having to care for their ill-equipped grandchildren. This is an interesting take on the issues facing an ageing society. Whilst contemporary Japan focuses on AI solutions to care for the elderly Tawada speculates that its the young who are ultimately weak and vulnerable.

Aside from the dystopian aspects some of Tawada's city vision could prove to be prescient. Whilst cars continue to choke the streets of Shibuya today it is more and more conceivable that we'll reach 'peak car' in the not too distant future.

Tawada's satire is sharp and inescapable and could be explored over far more pages than this novella. Would be great to read a graphic novel adaptation just as the cover art suggests.

The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada and translated by Margaret Mitsutani published by Portobello Books, 144 pages