Mei Ling participates in anti-hate protest

Misuzu’s counter-demonstration brings a private promise into public view: after telling Kido she will go in his place, she joins a protest opposing anti-Korean hate speech. Kido later recognizes her in a television report, and his mixed response—gladness at her commitment and anxiety about what it may cost her—reveals the intimacy and distance still shaping their relationship.

Background and Promise

Kido had been discussing the difficulty of deciding who counts as a victim and who perpetuates suffering. He argued that a third party should intervene, and described such intervention as the basis of the legal profession. Misuzu listened, then told him she would go in his place. Kido was caught off guard: he clarified that he had not meant to send her, warned that attending might make her feel awful, and thanked her. Misuzu replied that she wanted to go for her own reasons. Her answer makes the action hers, rather than a task delegated by Kido.

The exchange follows their conversation about the search for Daisuké Taniguchi. Kido never learned what aspect of that search Misuzu had wanted to discuss with him, but their online interactions grew more intimate from that day forward. The demonstration thus begins as a promise within an unfinished conversation, with its personal significance clearer to Kido only after he sees that Misuzu has acted on it.

The Demonstration in Public

Kido encounters Misuzu’s action by chance after falling asleep on the couch and waking after eleven. He turns on the television and sees a news feature on hate speech: a threatening crowd parades in daylight, carrying Rising Sun flags and shouting anti-Korean abuse. He is about to turn the television off when the caption changes to “Counterprotesters on the Scene.” A woman holding a placard appears briefly; its message reads, “Can’t we just get along? Chinhage jinaeyo!” Kido is astonished and certain that the woman is Misuzu.

The report makes visible what had been absent from their recent contact. Kido had almost forgotten her promise, and they had not been in touch of late; now he learns that she has fulfilled it without telling him. The brief appearance is enough to transform an earlier conversational commitment into a completed public act, while leaving Kido with little time to absorb what he has seen.

Kido’s Reaction and Their Relationship

Kido remembers Misuzu’s words from their lunch conversation near the Yokohama Museum of Art and realizes that he had not taken them seriously. He smiles at how characteristic her decision seems, yet his feelings are divided. He is glad to matter to her and recognizes that attending could not have been easy, but he cannot simply approve without reservation. His response combines affection and concern rather than treating her choice as either a gesture for his benefit or an uncomplicated act of courage.

The moment also exposes the limits of Kido’s assumptions. He had heard Misuzu state her intention but had not believed she would follow through; her independent action makes his earlier underestimation plain. His unease is connected to how he thinks about Zainichi identity, a subject he considers through a comparison with Levin’s conflicted relation to the people among whom he lives and with whom he identifies. The passage therefore locates Kido’s reservations in his own uncertain relation to belonging, not in any reported objection from Misuzu.

Significance

The counter-demonstration is both a response to public anti-Korean hostility and a quiet test of whether Kido can accept intervention carried out on another person’s terms. Misuzu acts because she wants to, while Kido must confront his surprise, his concern for her, and his wish to regard her choice favorably. Her brief appearance on television gives their growing closeness a concrete form: the promise he scarcely believed becomes an action he cannot ignore. The event does not resolve Kido’s ambivalence, but it makes Misuzu’s agency—and the significance she gives their connection—impossible for him to dismiss.