A circle of friends connected by goof-touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On July 19, novelist Mio Nukaga appeared on the program, introduced by current graduate student and book reviewer Yuki Awayi. We interviewed Ms. Nukaga about the story behind the creation of her novel “The Demon King of Changing Jobs” and her recent book recommendations.
INDEX
How do you feel about the dramatization of “The Devil’s Master of Changing Jobs”?
Takano (MC): Mr. Nukaga, yesterday Mr. Ai said that you are a very scary but kind teacher who knows a lot about the backstage of the publishing industry.
Nukaga: So that’s what he thought (laughs).
Takano: We had an exchange on Twitter. I corrected you (laughs).
Nukaga: I said, “That’s what I thought,” and he immediately corrected me (laughs).
Takano: To a slightly scary but very kind teacher.
Nukaga: I don’t turn off scary (laughs). You make it a little bit.
Takano: It was interesting to see your relationship with Mr. Awai.
Celeina (MC): Let me give you a quick profile. I was born in 1990, and in 2015, I won the “22nd Seicho Matsumoto Award” and the “16th Shogakukan Bunko Novel Award. And you are currently a lecturer at a university.
Nukaga: Yes, I do.
Takano: With Mr. Awai?
Nukaga: We meet once a week and talk about what we read this week. We talk about what we read this week or not.
Celeina: Heh. And Mr. Nukaga, your work from 2021, “The Demon King of Job Change,” has been dramatized. It started airing on Fuji TV this very week.
Takano: It’s amazing, isn’t it?
Nukaga: It just started.
Takano: I just showed you a picture I took with my phone, and there was an advertisement for “The Demon King of Job Change” in a station in Shinjuku’s Subnade! It was!
Nukaga: I saw this ad today, too.
Takano: It had a great impact. Actually, I used to work as a career consultant. I am so impressed by this! I know what it’s like. I also know the advertising industry, so I can tell you a lot of things about …….
Celeina: It matches with your experience.
Takano: How does it feel to have your work dramatized?
Nukaga: I thought that the visualization of a work is something that you don’t know what will happen until it is broadcast, so I am glad that the project was successful and made it to the airing stage.
Takano: So, basically, you just left it up to us?
Nukaga: That’s right. I was told that I would do it, and I left it to them without asking them to do this or that.
Celeina: I see. I was wondering how much the original work and the dramatization were in sync, so I’m glad to hear your point of view. Also, I thought the subject matter of changing jobs was really interesting.
Nukaga: I often start with the subject matter. If it’s about changing jobs, I start by trying to write something about changing jobs, and then I research various things about the job change industry, and I often develop elements that I think would make a good novel and turn them into a novel.
Takano: Do you do a lot of interviews?
Nukaga: Yes, I do. I start from the subject matter, so I do interviews before deciding what kind of story I want to tell, and I start by asking myself what kind of interesting things there are in this world. I start from the beginning, wondering what kind of interesting things there are in this world. In the case of this job change, the person who was actually looking for a new job said that if the person using the recruitment agent did not have a clear idea of what they wanted to do or what they wanted to do with their life, it would not go well at all, and that was pretty much the crux of the work.
Takano: Did you actually talk to the people who were using the recruitment agents?
Nukaga: I heard from a lot of people who had used recruitment agents to change jobs, and I realized that unless you organize the existence of agents in your mind while you are looking for a new job, you won’t be able to use them well.
