The preferred career path in Japan used to be straightforward: Work for one company until you retire or, in the case of women, marry.
Not so now: According to a 2022 survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, nearly one-third of recent university graduates leave their first full-time jobs within three years. The biggest reason: The job was not a good match.
That is true of Nozomi Iizuka (Erika Karata), who is 24 years old but working at a convenience store, the employer of college students, housewives and others unable or unwilling to join the salaried masses. This protagonist of Yuho Ishibashi’s slow-burn drama “When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty” was once employed by an ad agency. However, she left due to “overtime,” she vaguely tells Shunsuke (Kazuma Ishibashi), a lanky, languid male co-worker.
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