Nagoya is the destination of Kido’s search for the real Daisuké Taniguchi, and the place where the uncertainty surrounding the identity at the center of Rié’s case finally gives way to recognition. The meeting there confirms that Taniguchi survived, even as the larger questions about the exchanged identities remain unresolved in the encounter’s opening moments.

The Journey to Nagoya

The meeting was arranged for the first Saturday of March after Kido relayed Misuzu’s request to see the man. Although the client initially refused, he consented after Kido passed on Misuzu’s insistence that an apology should be made to her in person. Kido and Misuzu planned to travel together on the Nozomi bullet train: she boarded at Tokyo Station, while he joined farther along the route at Shin-Yokohama.

The arrangement separated the first interview from Misuzu’s reunion with the man. At one o’clock, Kido and Misuzu had a simple lunch at a restaurant inside Nagoya Station, then parted temporarily so Kido could speak with him alone before Misuzu joined them. The city thus serves as both a practical meeting point and a threshold between Kido’s investigation and the personal encounter that Misuzu has requested.

The Meeting Place

The man selected a branch of Komeda’s Coffee about a ten-minute walk from Nagoya Station. Unfamiliar with the area and its multiple branches, Kido lost his way and arrived roughly five minutes late. A barista appeared to recognize whom he was seeking and directed him to the smoking area, where a movable wooden partition separated his table from the neighboring one.

At a four-seat table sat a man in a gray knit cap and an embroidered bomber jacket. Kido knew Taniguchi’s face from photographs, but those images were at least ten years old, leaving him unsure whether he would recognize the man immediately. The man had aged, yet Kido recognized him without doubt. The confirmation came in a modest café, after a journey and an investigation shaped by the difficulty of knowing whether a person and the records bearing his name were one and the same.

What Nagoya Confirms

The meeting establishes that the real Daisuké Taniguchi is alive. Kido’s recognition also sharpens the distinction at the heart of the case: the man who had lived as Taniguchi with Rié was not the person now sitting before him. The novel has already shown how the deceased man’s marriage, death, driving, medical care, and pension payments had all been recorded under Taniguchi’s name, despite the real Taniguchi’s brother identifying the photograph as someone else. Nagoya provides a human confirmation that the official record alone could not supply.

That confirmation carries an emotional consequence for Kido. He recalls having maintained his trust in Makoto Hara, and feels warmth in his cheeks as he recognizes Taniguchi. But the opening of the interview does not yet explain how the identities were exchanged or settle the circumstances of Taniguchi’s disappearance. Nagoya is therefore a turning point rather than a complete resolution: the missing man is no longer merely a possibility, and the questions surrounding his absence can now be addressed face to face.