INDEX
Embracing the Shift to the Older Side of Life
Nishi: I made my debut when I was in my 20s, and my editor was more than 10 years older than me, so I felt as if my older brothers were publishing my books. So when I said, “I want another drink! I would say, “I want another drink!” and the adults would say, “Oh, dear,” and take me to the bar. Then, when I was in my thirties or so, I started to feel like, “What’s that? The editor is younger than me. I started to think, “What?
Okaya: Young editors have no choice but to come along if they are asked to have a drink.
Nishi: That’s right. If they think, “Hey, maybe we are scary?” I was afraid of them, too.
Okaya: You are afraid that it will be considered power harassment.
Nishi : Yes, yes. So when I went out for a drink, I couldn’t drink as much as I used to when I was younger, so I was a little quiet. They would be like, “Mr. Nishi, would you like something to drink, ?
Okaya: Oh,
Nishi: I wondered if I had to get “service drunk” to take care of them (laugh), but I felt that getting drunk with young people would be a form of power harassment and that it would be hard for me, so I gradually stopped going out drinking. ‘I do my job well, so I don’t have to spend money there. Please take more young writers with you.
Okaya: The other day, the editor who had been in charge of me for a long time was going on maternity leave, so I was handed over to a younger editor, and she said, “Let’s have dinner at my place.
Nishi: Wow, it’s great to have dinner with Mr. Okaya, isn’t it?
Okaya: A few cartoonists got together, all middle-aged women, and there was one young editor there.
Nishi: Oh, that makes me nervous!
Okaya: So we were talking about menopause and stuff like that, and we were like, “Wah-ha-ha,” and I don’t think it was directly because of that, but she quit the company before she started working on my series. I couldn’t apologize because he quit, but I’m really sorry.
Nishi: It’s not that I was mean to him. But from a girl in her early twenties, she looks scary.
