Confessions characters

Appears from the start

A middle-school teacher resigning after the death of her four-year-old daughter. Calm and methodical before her final class, she rejects the official finding of an accident and announces that two students in the room caused the child's death.

Also known as Student A

Appears from the start

A gifted student and aspiring inventor who craves public recognition. Moriguchi identifies him as the designer of the electrical device used against her daughter, while withholding his name from the class only as a formality.

Also known as Student B

Appears from the start

A classmate drawn into Shuya's plan and identified by Moriguchi as the second boy responsible for Manami's death. Less assured than Shuya, he is highly sensitive to humiliation and to his mother's belief in his innocence.

Appears from the start

Moriguchi's four-year-old daughter, whose body was found in the school swimming pool. Her death is the event around which every confession in the novel turns.

Appears from the start

Manami's father, an educator known publicly for his work on HIV awareness. He and Moriguchi did not marry after learning that he carried HIV, but he remained part of Manami's life until illness kept him away.

First appears in chapter 2

A perceptive student in Shuya and Naoki's class who records the aftermath of Moriguchi's accusation. She refuses to join the class's ritualized persecution of Shuya and becomes one of the few people willing to listen to him closely.

Also known as Werther

First appears in chapter 2

The enthusiastic teacher who takes over Moriguchi's class. Inspired by Sakuramiya's educational ideals, he tries to rescue absent Naoki through conspicuous home visits, without understanding how his efforts affect the boy or his family.

First appears in chapter 3

Naoki's protective mother, convinced that her son was manipulated and that Moriguchi's revenge caused his collapse. She devotes herself to keeping him safe at home and interprets his increasing withdrawal through the image of the gentle child she remembers.

First appears in chapter 5

Shuya's brilliant mother, whose scientific ambitions and frustration shaped his early childhood. She left the family and built a successful academic career, becoming the distant audience whose approval Shuya still seeks.