Noboru Wataya’s decision to run for the Diet

Noboru Wataya’s decision to run for the Diet begins as a family and constituency succession plan: with his elderly uncle unable to seek another term and the expected heir unwilling to leave Tokyo, local supporters turn to Noboru as a younger, recognizable candidate. The announcement shocks Toru, while Kumiko insists that her brother’s political future has nothing to do with her. Set beside the novel’s later account of imperial collapse and wartime violence, the candidacy also belongs to a wider history of political power and its consequences.

The succession plan

Kumiko tells Toru that her brother called her that afternoon and was thinking of running for office; he had nearly made up his mind. The proposed seat is his uncle’s constituency in Niigata. The uncle, her father’s elder brother, had represented the district in the Lower House for four or five terms and had once held a minor cabinet post. Advanced age and heart disease now make another election impossible, leaving the constituency in need of a successor.

The family had expected the uncle’s younger son to take over. His elder brother had never intended to enter politics, making the younger son the apparent choice. But the younger son has a family and an important job in Tokyo, and does not want to surrender that post or relocate to Niigata. His wife also opposes the sacrifice that a political career would demand of their family. His refusal opens the way for Noboru.

Why Noboru is chosen

The people in the district want a young, intelligent, energetic candidate who might serve several terms and become influential in the central government. Kumiko describes Noboru as having name recognition and appeal to younger voters. Although he is not suited to the personal work of cultivating local relationships, the constituency already has a strong support organization to handle that side of campaigning. He can also continue living in Tokyo and need only appear for the election.

The arrangement makes candidacy possible without requiring Noboru to establish himself in the district through sustained local engagement. The local organization supplies the connection to voters that he lacks, while his public profile supplies the appeal the constituency seeks. His uncle’s seat thus becomes both a family succession and an opportunity to advance a politically promising figure.

Kumiko and Toru’s reaction

Toru is startled by the news and has difficulty picturing Noboru as a member of the Diet. He asks Kumiko what she thinks of the plan. Her answer is emphatically detached: Noboru can become a Diet member or an astronaut, for all she cares. The contrast is sharp: she is the person who brings Toru the news, but she refuses to treat her brother’s ambitions as a matter in which she is involved.

That exchange establishes the candidacy as a consequential change in Noboru’s public prospects, but not as a reconciliation or a shift in Kumiko’s relationship to him. Her response places a boundary around the political news: his future may expand, yet she claims no personal stake in it.

Historical and political context

The account of Noboru’s prospective career appears in a novel that also recounts the Japanese military presence in Manchukuo and its collapse. In a remembered account of the late 1930s, the apparent calm of Hsin-ching is set against the widening war with China and deteriorating relations with the United States. The narrator describes that calm as make-believe: local comfort coexists with a broader conflict whose costs continue to grow.

The later account of the Soviet invasion shows the collapse of Manchukuo through concrete decisions and consequences. The Kwantung Army withdraws its main force, leaving border garrisons and Japanese civilian settlers exposed; the invading Soviet Army advances rapidly, while soldiers of the Manchukuo Army desert or rebel rather than fight for Japan. The capital is left in a political vacuum, and the authorities dispute whether it should surrender as an open city. These events do not explain Noboru’s candidacy directly, but place the novel’s political succession story alongside an earlier history in which institutions, military power, and claims to rule are tested by events.

Political power and its costs

The novel’s account of wartime rule also refuses to separate political authority from the people who bear its costs. The remembered history includes the evacuation that abandons civilians and garrisons, the flight of the puppet emperor, and the collapse of loyalty among soldiers in the Manchukuo Army. In a separate episode, Chinese workers take responsibility for removing the zoo animals’ bodies in exchange for their hides and meat, after the soldiers’ actions leave the veterinarian with a disposal problem. The bargain reflects the practical power of people who must manage the immediate consequences of decisions made by military authorities.

A former intelligence officer later rejects the political systems he has encountered: Soviet rule and its repression, as well as Japanese actions in Manchuria, including the killing of Chinese laborers involved in constructing a secret base at Hailar. This perspective gives the candidacy a broader, uneasy resonance. Noboru’s planned entry into national politics is described in terms of youth, recognition, organization, and advancement; elsewhere, the novel shows how political institutions and military power can shape lives far beyond the ambitions of their leaders.