Chiya Fujino’s 2022 novella 団地のふたり(Danchi no futari) chronicles the daily lives of two 55yo women who were childhood friends and still live in the same danchi apartment building.
Natsuko Sakurai is an illustrator whose once-popular art style is no longer in demand. To make ends meet, she sells nostalgic items like old toys and sheet music collections on online auctions, and she’s also become extremely proficient at cooking on a budget.
Noe Ota has returned to her childhood home after getting divorced. Though she was once hailed as a prodigy, gendered harassment prevented her from succeeding in academia, and she now works part-time as a lecturer at a university.
Instead of dwelling on their faded ambitions, Natsuko and Noe find comfort in the low-stakes routines of midlife. They fix window screens for elderly neighbors, collect twentieth-century memorabilia to sell online, and share conversations over Natsuko’s home-cooked dinners.
Fujino transforms the retro danchi apartment complex into a warm and friendly community. None of the women who live there feel the need to update their lives; they’re just happy to enjoy the pleasures of a low-pressure lifestyle in a charming old building.
This five-chapter novella feels very light and breezy, and I get the feeling that it’s aimed at readers in their 20s and 30s looking for an alternative to sky-high Tokyo rents. Instead of an overarching plot, the book features a series of loosely connected episodes, allowing the reader to dip into Natsuko and Noe’s slice-of-life adventures at their leisure.
団地のふたり was adapted into an NHK television drama in 2024, and a manga version has been serialized since April 2026. Apparently this story is quite popular!
Contemporary Japanese Literature 