Adachi Ward, Tokyo, lay at the northernmost edge of Tokyo's twenty-three wards.
Although Japan had poured the strength of the entire nation into developing Tokyo, giving this premier city a dazzling veneer of wealth, with every desirable element gathered here and drawing countless young people to the capital—
Even Tokyo had poor areas, relatively speaking. As the poorest and most chaotic ward in all of Tokyo, Adachi Ward's only advantage was its cheap rent, land prices, and cost of living.
Adachi Ward was a suburb of Tokyo, and transportation was not especially convenient. As the poorest and most chaotic ward in Tokyo, Adachi Ward not only had low incomes and poor public safety, but had also topped a social survey on which of Tokyo's twenty-three wards had the worst security, receiving over sixty percent of the vote—after all, this was a historic downtown district that had carried over poverty and disorder since the Edo period.
Not only were its public safety and economy poor, but Adachi Ward's educational standards ranked near the bottom in all of eastern... even all of Japan. Its elementary school scores had only barely reached the national average last year, while its middle school standards remained far below it.
It could be said that aside from low rent and cheap land, living in Adachi Ward was worse than living in neighboring Chiba Prefecture to the east—and Chiba residents really did look down on Adachi Ward.
Takeshita Kiyoitsu returned from his part-time job at a small shop, his expression grim. Lately, the pressure on him had been mounting. Sometimes, when he watched the cars passing by, he even felt like rushing straight into traffic and ending it all.
But whenever he truly considered doing it, he suddenly felt unwilling...
In the end, he abandoned the thought