No Longer Human characters

Appears from the start

The man whose life is represented by three unsettling photographs and a set of notebooks. In the earliest picture he is a child whose forced grin strikes the observer as strangely empty.

Appears from the start

An unnamed observer who studies three photographs of Yozo at different ages and later receives the notebooks that explain the life behind them.

First appears in chapter 2

Yozo's prosperous and intimidating father, a public figure whose household demands deference. Yozo fears displeasing him and learns to conceal his own wishes rather than answer honestly.

First appears in chapter 2

A frail schoolmate who recognizes that one of Yozo's comic mishaps was deliberate. His ability to see through the performance alarms Yozo, who cultivates his friendship to keep the discovery contained.

First appears in chapter 3

An older art student Yozo meets in Tokyo. He introduces Yozo to drinking, pawnshops, prostitutes, and left-wing meetings, becoming both a companion and a damaging influence.

First appears in chapter 3

A bar hostess burdened by poverty and an unhappy marriage. She and Yozo recognize a shared despair and spend a brief, quiet period together away from their usual surroundings.

Also known as Flatfish

First appears in chapter 3

A family acquaintance who takes responsibility for Yozo after the authorities release him. He offers practical supervision but communicates in hints and tests that Yozo finds threatening and impossible to answer.

First appears in chapter 4

A magazine employee who supports Yozo while he earns money drawing cartoons. She is a single mother and treats him as a possible partner within her small household.

First appears in chapter 4

Shizuko's young daughter. She readily accepts Yozo as a fatherlike presence, making the domestic life he shares with her and Shizuko seem both inviting and undeserved to him.

First appears in chapter 4

The young woman who works at a tobacco shop and trusts Yozo with unusual directness. Her innocence and confidence in other people draw him toward marriage and the hope of a more orderly life.

First appears in chapter 4

The proprietor of the Kyobashi bar where Yozo finds refuge. She helps him during his decline and later preserves his notebooks and photographs.

First appears in chapter 5

A pharmacist from whom Yozo seeks medicine as his health and drinking worsen. Her own unhappiness makes her susceptible to his appeals, and she supplies the drug on which he becomes dependent.