Hiroshi works closely with Ishii, a detective in charge of a task force on crimes against women. This focus on crimes against women is relatively new. Ishii has set up a sting for a sagi gang targeting older people, mainly women, to scam them out of money, deeds, and anything else they can get. Ishii is devastated when her sting goes wrong, but they work together with their different approaches to get to the bottom of the crimes. Ishii is the tougher of the two in a street fight, but Hiroshi pulls small bits of evidence together more quickly. They work well together with their different approaches and contrasting characters. Can you elaborate on the dynamics of the partnership between Detective Hiroshi and Detective Ishii and how it enriches the story? Detective Hiroshi Shimizu is a little, as the Japanese say, “outside the mosquito net.” He studied accounting in Boston, became fluent in English, and works in the homicide division. He was hired for the simple reason that most murders connect to financial crimes and often have an international connection requiring English. Unfortunately, he’s too squeamish to scour crime scenes, but makes up for it by following money trails, compiling evidence, and acting on his sense about people. He teams up with Detective Takamatsu, who’s street savvy and results oriented. His boss in homicide, Sakaguchi, is an ex-sumo wrestler, huge in size but calm and focused. The world they live in is Tokyo with all its back alleys, complex relations, and secrets layered on secrets. The sheer size and complexity of the city frustrates their efforts every time.. For readers new to your work, can you briefly introduce Detective Hiroshi Shimizu and other key characters along with what they should know about the world of Detective Hiroshi before diving into Shitamachi Scam? 85
What is the shitamachi area of Tokyo? How does this setting influence the story, and what unique elements does it bring to the series?
How do you balance the need to explain cultural nuances of Tokyo and Japan for an international audience without oversimplifying or generalizing? The series often delves into the intricacies of Japanese culture and society. How do you ensure accuracy and sensitivity in your depiction of these elements? This is a very tricky thing for all novelists, to reduce the world enough to comprehend it without oversimplifying, compressing, or erasing the intricate texture of life. Even though I’ve lived in Japan for twenty- some years, I still need to check details, background, and information. I have good friends who answer picky little questions. I live in Tokyo, so I work with Japanese colleagues and students every day. My students are a constant source of input in what they say about the novels and films we study. At the end of the day, one novel can only hold so much detail, so I usually overwrite in the first drafts, and then select the most relevant elements in the later The eastern, older side of Tokyo has long been called shitamachi. That’s translated as “lower town,” but it encompasses a very different urban outlook. It’s the more traditional area of Tokyo, with small neighborhood homes, wooden shops, centuries-old temples, and a slower pace of life. The rest of Tokyo has huge crosswalks, tall skyscrapers, and the pursuit of profit, but shitamachi tends to cling to its past forms.
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