Love at Least

by Yukiko Motoya, Kamil Spychalski (Translator)

Love at Least is Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar brought into the fraught, twenty-first century world of Japanese contemporaries.

Twenty-five-year-old Yasuko has been living with her kind but apathetic boyfriend Tsunaki for three years. During this time, she has suffered waves of depression and hypersomnia, staying in bed for days on end, mired in ennui.

Taking over some of the house chores when Tsunaki begins working longer hours, hoping to break out of her rut, turns into a disaster. An attempt at cooking dinner ends with her sobbing in a pitch-black hallway, groping around for the tripped circuit breaker. Desperate to be “functional,” Yasuko lands a part-time job at a restaurant where, for the first time, she experiences a warm, family-like environment. But when the care from her coworkers eventually suffocates her, her manic-depression returns, and she storms out of the restaurant.

Confronting her brokenness, she questions what she has been afraid to face and asks Tsunaki: Why is he with her? Radical, comical, and energetic, Love at Least is a sincere and compelling story of young love.

Genres: Fiction, Japan

Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2006

About the author

Yukiko Motoya (本谷 有希子) is a seasoned Japanese author, playwright, voice actress and theatre director. She has won prestigious awards in most of those fields including the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, Mishima Yukio Prize, and the Akutagawa Prize.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up, because while I feel a bit ambiguous about this one, I have an odd appreciation for how unhinged the protagonist is capable of being. If you've ever worried you'll never get your life together, just wait until you meet Yasuko. Love at Least explores what it means for a person to be considered "useful" and worthy of being loved with an unlikable (though occasionally relatable) narrator that struggles with inherited mental illness.

[chels · Rating 2 out of 5]

The overall premise was interesting and kept me engaged, however I found the storytelling very jumpy. Wish we were able to get more details about the restaurant and her reflecting on her mom and the past. Missed opportunity but still an interesting quick read

[Bonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nick Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review forthcoming in CHIRB

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dysfunctional side of Japan you don't normally hear about: people staying in bed, not working, losing their way. Life can be cruel in Tokyo, and this is about depression and hypersomnia, failing in a country that ruthlessly demands direction and commitment. But despite the dark undercurrents, it is also absolutely hilarious, an energetic, dynamic reexamination of Japanese society and culture in ways that surprise over and over again.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was delulu, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it! I am very thankful to Yukiko Motoya, Soft Skull, and NetGalley for advanced digital access before September 8, 2026.

Our FMC is depressed and stuck in a rut, proceeding to push away everyone in her midst until it's just her and the boyfriend she assumes tolerates her ever-changing mood swings. Readers are tossed into her spiraling rabbit hole as well, as she suffers and fails to find a way out of her sadness.

This novella, of sorts, is deep, short, and aggravating from all angles, but I still appreciated the ride.