In this blog post, we’ll summarize the plot and main characters of ‘No Longer Human’, examine the causes of his downfall, and carefully explore the questions the work raises.

Overview

‘No Longer Human’ was serialized in a magazine from March to May 1948 and is regarded as the definitive work of Osamu Dazai’s literary career. It is so widely read that it is included in Japanese textbooks, and as the author’s masterpiece—which has been reprinted numerous times over more than half a century—it has had a profound influence on the Japanese literary world.
Osamu Dazai once said, “I am convinced. ‘Human beings are born for love and revolution. And I simply cannot understand what human life is.’” This work is interpreted as a spiritual self-portrait—the first piece he wrote not for others, but for himself. The novel takes the form of presenting the diary of Yōzō Ōba, a character who has lost his mind, divided into three parts, framed by a preface and an afterword that offer an objective perspective on the author.

Characters

I — The narrator and novelist of the story, who expresses an uneasy impression upon seeing a photograph of Yōzō Ōba. Later, he receives Yōzō’s diary from a madam in Funabashi City, and that diary becomes the main text of the novel.
Oba Yōzō — The de facto protagonist and author of the three diaries. Born into a wealthy family, he was frail from childhood and possessed an introverted personality marked by a fear of people. It is implied that he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of maids and servants during his childhood, and it is highly likely that this experience influenced the development of his self-destructive personality. He is strikingly handsome and quite intelligent.
Masao Horiki — An art student at the same art studio Yōzō attended during his college years; he is six years older than Yōzō. He introduced Yōzō to alcohol, cigarettes, prostitutes, pawnshops, and leftist ideology, providing him with temporary comfort while simultaneously leading him down a destructive path.
Tsuneo — A waitress at a café who always exudes an isolated, lonely aura. Her husband is in prison, and she is from Hiroshima Prefecture. She jumps into the water with Yozo but dies alone.
Shizuko — A magazine reporter who encourages Yozo to contribute manga. She is tall and slender, and her husband has passed away. She is from Yamanashi Prefecture.
Shigeko — Shizuko’s daughter, who calls Yōjō “Dad” and looks up to him. She was five years old when she first appeared.
Madam — The owner of the bar; she is a highly principled and chivalrous woman.
Yoshiko — A young woman working at the tobacco shop across from the bar; she has an innocent, trusting nature and is charming with her white front teeth.
Shibuta (nickname: Flounder) — An antique dealer who has a business relationship with Yōjō’s father. He acts as a guarantor for Yōjō; he has a dignified and talkative personality and is good with numbers. He is from the Tōhoku region and is single.
The Pharmacist’s Wife — The owner of the pharmacy Yōzō visits after coughing up blood; she immediately recognizes that Yōzō shares a similar misfortune and feels a sense of kinship with him. She has led a deeply unhappy life due to the illnesses of her husband and son, her father-in-law’s stroke, and her own polio.

Plot

This novel depicts the downfall of Oba Yōjo, who, though raised in a wealthy family, could not understand human hypocrisy and pretense and suffered from constantly worrying about what others thought, eventually sliding into a life of debauchery. The main text consists of three diaries written by Yōjo (First, Second, and Third Diaries), while the preface and afterword add the narrator’s personal experiences to convey the full story.
Preface — It begins with the sentence, “I have seen about three photographs of that man.” By comparing three photographs—one from her childhood, one from her student days, and one of a bizarre nature—the preface introduces Yōzō from a third-person perspective.
First Memoir — Beginning with the sentence, “I have led a life full of shame,” the narrator, Yōjo, struggles with confusion due to her unique sensibilities and eventually tries to approach people by acting like a clown. However, by nature, she is unable to engage in arguments or defend herself properly; unable to speak of the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of maids and servants during her childhood, she could only force a suppressed smile. Yōzō cannot understand others’ attitude of “living clearly and cheerfully” and ultimately chooses a solitude in which he confides in no one.
Second Memoir — During middle school, he is terrified by Takekazu, a classmate who notices his clownish behavior. Later, in high school, at Horiki’s urging, he becomes immersed in alcohol, cigarettes, prostitution, and leftist ideology, finding a brief sense of liberation. However, as his circumstances change, it becomes difficult for him to break free from his shackles. After a one-night stand with a married woman, he attempts a double suicide, but Yōjō is the only one to survive and is interrogated on charges of aiding suicide. Even after being released on a suspended indictment, his mental turmoil continues.
Third Memoir — After being expelled from school, Yōjō stays briefly at Nopchi’s house but runs away from home following a conflict. His despair deepens as he enters destructive relationships with a woman with a child and a bar madam. For a time, he finds brief stability by serializing a comic strip and even experiences happiness after getting married; however, when a horrific incident occurs in which his wife is murdered by a regular customer, Yōjō descends into despair and once again turns to alcohol and suicide attempts.
Later, Yōzō coughs up blood and, after injecting morphine prescribed by a pharmacy, appears to recover rapidly, but he becomes addicted to morphine and falls into drug abuse. As his medical bills pile up to an unmanageable amount, he begins a relationship with the pharmacist’s wife and pleads with his family to help him. At the urging of Nopchi and Horiki, Yōzō goes to a hospital but is admitted to a mental institution rather than a tuberculosis sanatorium. There, he becomes convinced that he is already a “No Longer Human.”
Commentary — This work is read as a psychological autobiography that reveals the author’s inner self. Rather than a factual record, it is a fictional reconstruction of deep reflections and experiences imbued with the author’s soul. Through this novel, Osamu Dazai reveals motifs he had suppressed throughout his life and pours out his confessions as if protesting against the world, humanity, and God.
Significance of the Work — “No Longer Human” is a harrowing work that deals with the essence of human existence and the pain embedded deep within the psyche; regardless of its artistic merit, it possesses a contagious power and influence that strongly shake people’s hearts, thoughts, and outlook on life. It is also regarded as an eternal symbol representing the fragile, beautiful, sorrowful, and pure souls of those born with certain personalities.

Overview of the Work

After returning to his hometown following several months of hospitalization, Yōzō had become little more than a wreck.
Time passed without either happiness or unhappiness, and the story unfolds amid Yozo’s self-reproach that this feels like the only truth in the world of so-called “humans,” who have lived in a state of utter chaos until now.
Yozo’s confession concludes with the remark that, although he is actually 27 years old, his thinning hair makes him look over 40.

Afterword

In the afterword, there is a scene where “I” meets the madam, receives the diary and photographs left behind by Oba, and becomes engrossed in their bizarre contents. When “I” asks the madam about Yōzō’s well-being, she replies that she doesn’t really know, and ultimately, Yōzō is remembered as a “godlike, kind child,” bringing the novel to a close.

Osamu Dazai and the Nature of His Work

Osamu Dazai is regarded as a writer who carved out a unique niche in modern Japanese literature through the “autobiographical novel”—a genre in which personal experiences are revealed as they are, without fictionalization. Drawing on his keen and delicate sensibility and innate talent, he satirizes human nature and life, delving into anguish and truth to evoke emotions that are at times serene and at other times overwhelming.
He wrote a wide range of works, from dark and somber pieces to lighthearted and humorous ones, with a sense of anxiety about life particularly prominent in his early works. Growing up in the Tsushima family, where he witnessed firsthand the divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” led him to criticize the powerful while harboring compassion for the weak; some of his works also frequently reference the Bible, reflecting the guilt he felt following a double suicide. After marriage, he found stability in his life and published many works with brighter themes.
Critics in Japan praise Dazai as a genius of the autobiographical novel and a figure who opened new horizons in Japanese literature. His prose flows with elegance, and the emotions underlying his writing possess a power that draws readers in, earning him such high acclaim that his work has been called “the sentiment of the century.”
One translator once remarked that reading Dazai’s novels evokes a strange sense of awe and a feeling of being drawn into an inexplicable abyss of melancholy. Today, Dazai is regarded almost as an idol among Japanese youth, and every year on his birthday, June 19, memorial services are held at his grave.

Adaptations and Derivative Works

Several attempts have been made to adapt his works into films. In 2010, a live-action film adaptation of ‘No Longer Human’ was released, but because many parts were omitted in an attempt to condense the original work into a two-hour runtime, it did not receive very favorable reviews. In 2019, another live-action film starring Shun Oguri was released; although it shared the same title, it was not a direct adaptation of the novel but rather a biographical work depicting the process that led Dazai to write ‘No Longer Human’. Directed by Mika Ninagawa, it received relatively favorable reviews.
As for the manga adaptation, renowned horror manga artist Junji Ito took on the serialization; Volume 1 was released on October 30, 2017, Volume 2 on December 7, 2018, and the series concluded with Volume 3 in 2019.
An animated adaptation was produced in 2009 as part of the Blue Literature Series; however, significant omissions and adaptations were made to condense the original work into four episodes, which divided audiences.
It has also been adapted into a play in South Korea. The play, performed at the Traveler’s Theater from November 3 to 6, 2020, meticulously explored the inner world of Yōjō, a young man who, unable to adapt to a human world rife with hypocrisy, spirals toward self-destruction.

The Life of Osamu Dazai

Osamu Dazai’s father, Tsushima Gen’emon, was a son-in-law who had married into the wealthy Matsumoto family. He enjoyed a distinguished career as a local leader, serving as a village businessman, a prefectural assembly member, a member of the House of Representatives, and eventually a member of the House of Peers. At the time, Gen’emon was known as the wealthiest man in Aomori Prefecture, paying the highest taxes, and his mansion is now preserved as the Dazai Museum.
Dazai recounted that the Tsushima family had risen from poverty to prosperity through moneylending starting with his great-grandfather, and he viewed his family’s history and their current affluence with distaste. These feelings became the catalyst that would later have a profound impact on his life and work.
Born on June 19, 1909, to his father, Gen’emon, and his mother, Tane, his birth name was Shuji Tsushima. He was the tenth of eleven children and the sixth son, but as his older brothers died young, he effectively grew up as the fourth son. He was raised in a large family of some 30 people, including his great-grandmother, grandmother, aunts, female cousins, and maids; in particular, Take, a 14-year-old nanny who cared for him from ages 3 to 8, later appeared in his work ‘Memories’.
In 1916, he enrolled in Kanagi First Elementary School and graduated in 1922. He then advanced to Meiji Higher Elementary School, where he made many friends from his hometown. These friends from that time also appear in his novel ‘Exchange of Friends’. The reason he did not advance directly to middle school was that, even though he had graduated at the top of his class, his father made him attend the higher elementary school operated by the local administrative association for one more year to further his education.
In 1923, he entered Aomori Middle School with excellent grades, but that same year, his father passed away at the age of 53. Dazai continued his studies and maintained top grades in all subjects.
In 1925, during his third year of middle school, he began his literary career with the story “The Last Regent,” published in ‘Aomori Kyūji’, and launched the literary magazines ‘Seiza’ and ‘Shinkirū’ with friends, marking the start of his career as a writer in earnest.
In 1926, he founded the magazine ‘Aonbo’ with his older brothers, working as both a writer and an editor. After enrolling in Hirosaki High School in 1927, he became deeply immersed in the literature of Izumi Kyōka and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. That same year, shocked by the news of Akutagawa’s suicide, he neglected his studies, frequented the red-light district, and led a melancholic life; around this time, he also met Hatsuyo Oyama, a 15-year-old geisha.
In 1928, Dazai founded the literary magazine ‘Seibo Bungei’ and published “Mugan Naraku,” through which he was introduced to Marxism. He became deeply engrossed in proletarian literature but, despairing over the disconnect between his literary ideals and his own social class, attempted suicide by drug overdose in December 1929.
During this period, he was influenced by Masuji Ibuse, and in November 1930, he met Shimeko Tanabe, a café waitress, and attempted a double suicide with her at Koyurugi Cape in Kamakura. In this incident, only Shimeko died; Dazai survived and was arrested on charges of aiding suicide but was released on a deferred prosecution. This experience was reflected in his works, such as ‘No Longer Human’ and ‘The Flower of the Clown’.

Leftist Activism and Self-Surrender (1931–1932)

Starting in 1931, he began living with Hatsuyo Oyama and, while devoting himself to writing haiku under the pen name Shurindo, continued to participate in left-wing activism. However, in 1932, he suddenly had a change of heart and turned himself in to the police. The background to his surrender was an incident in which police had come to his family home in his hometown because of his left-wing activities, causing his family to learn of his involvement. The decisive factor was a letter from his eldest brother, who was a prefectural assemblyman at the time. Enraged, his brother wrote, “Unless you report to the Aomori Police Station and pledge to withdraw from left-wing activism, I will stop sending you money and sever all ties with you.”
Dazai felt deep self-loathing for his actions and began writing ‘Memories’ during this period.

Literary Debut and Early Works (1933–1935)

From 1932 onward, Dazai began his career as a novelist in earnest, publishing the short story “The Train” in 1933. It was at this time that he first began using the pen name “Osamu Dazai.” This story is regarded as a work that reveals Dazai’s admiration for Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
Subsequently, from 1933 to 1934, he published several works in literary magazines and built friendships with fellow writers. In 1935, he published the novel ‘Against the Current’; he took the entrance exam for the Miyako Shimbun but failed to pass, leading him to attempt suicide once again, though he survived.

Physical and Mental Crisis and Continued Literary Activity (1935)

1935 was a tumultuous year in many ways for Dazai. His appendicitis developed into peritonitis, requiring three months of hospitalization, and he became addicted to Fabinal, a painkiller he was taking. That year, he was nominated for the newly established Akutagawa Prize but finished in second place.
His literary output became even more prolific during this period, and he published his first collection of short stories; however, his Fabinal addiction relapsed, leading to two hospitalizations. After his discharge, as his symptoms of drug addiction worsened, his concerned friend Masuji Ibuse and other colleagues admitted him to the psychiatric ward at Musashino Hospital under the pretense that he was “receiving treatment for tuberculosis.”
Although he was discharged a month later after making a full recovery, Dazai was so deeply traumatized that he told his colleagues, “It seems you don’t even consider me human. I have lost my value as a human being.” This experience is later depicted in the conclusion of ‘No Longer Human’.

The Incident, His Cease from Writing, and His Comeback (1937–1938)

In 1937, upon learning that Hatsuyo Oyama had committed adultery with his relative, Kenshiro Kodate, while he was hospitalized, Dazai was so shocked that he attempted a joint suicide with Hatsuyo at Tanigawa Hot Springs by taking calmotin, but the attempt failed. This experience was also depicted in ‘No Longer Human’.
He subsequently stopped writing for a short time and broke up with Hatsuyo after returning to Tokyo. In 1938, introduced by a friend, he visited Tengachaya at Misaka Pass in Yamanashi Prefecture and stayed there for three months; while there, he was introduced to Michiko Ishihara, a native of Kofu, by Masuji Ibuse, and the two married.

Stability After Marriage and Major Works (1938–1941)

After marrying, Dazai settled in Kofu, his wife’s hometown, where he found great mental and physical stability and produced numerous works; his writing also took on a brighter tone. A representative work from this period is the beloved novel ‘Run, Meros!’, which is included in Japanese school textbooks.
In June 1941, his eldest daughter, Sonoko, was born, and in November, he received a draft notice but was exempted due to a chest ailment. Dazai continued to write even during the Pacific War; a representative work from this period is ‘Tsugaru’, a novel in the form of a travelogue written while he was traveling through his hometown. Literary critic Haruo Sato assessed that ‘Tsugaru’ alone was enough to place Dazai among the ranks of immortal writers.

Loss Amid Wartime Censorship and Air Raids (1942–1945)

In 1942, he published ‘Fireworks’ (later retitled ‘Before Sunrise’), but was ordered to delete certain passages on the grounds that they were inappropriate for the current political climate. In 1943, he completed ‘The Song of the Lark’, but its publication was postponed due to concerns about censorship.
In 1944, ‘The Song of the Lark’ went to press for publication, but the printing plant was hit by an air raid, and all the books—just moments away from publication—were completely destroyed. Although Dazai devoted himself to writing with fierce artistic passion during this period, he fell into a slump, experiencing despair and frustration due to the circumstances of the times, and was unable to publish almost any of his works.
During the Great Tokyo Air Raid, he sent his entire family to his in-laws’ home and remained in Tokyo alone; however, when his house was destroyed, he belatedly fled to his in-laws’ home. Three months later, his in-laws’ home was also completely burned down in an air raid, forcing him to flee once again to his hometown.

Postwar Prolific Activity and Final Years (1946–1948)

After the war, he was highly productive, publishing 15 works in 1946 alone, and in 1947, his novel ‘Sayō’ became a bestseller. In 1948, he completed the autobiographical novels ‘No Longer Human’ and ‘Cherries’, which brought him immortal fame.
However, in 1948, Dazai ended his life by jumping into the Tamagawa Canal with his mistress, Tomie Yamazaki, in a joint suicide. While there are various speculations regarding his motives for suicide—including problems with his mistress and the condition of his son, whom he had with his wife—the exact reason remains unknown. At the time, rumors circulated that he had been shocked to learn that Tomie Yamazaki had been a geisha in the past, but no one knows the truth for certain.
Rumors that he had ingested cyanide before jumping led to water quality tests being conducted in the Tamagawa Canal. He jumped on June 13, and his body was discovered on June 19—coincidentally, his 39th birthday. Records also indicate that it rained continuously during the search for his body.
Ultimately, Osamu Dazai’s final work became ‘Goodbye’. The novel, which had been serialized in the ‘Asahi Shimbun’, remained unfinished after 13 installments.