No Longer Human Characters

The protagonist of No Longer Human, Yozo is a depressed Japanese man who feels alienated from everyone around him. He has an almost inexplicable fear of humans, finding it hard to understand why people… read analysis of Yozo

The unnamed speaker narrates the prologue and epilogue of No Longer Human, explaining that he never met Yozo—or, in his words, “the madman who wrote these notebooks.” Nonetheless, the speaker used to frequent… read analysis of The Unnamed Speaker

Takeichi is one of Yozo’s peers in high school. Yozo initially thinks Takeichi is simple-minded and unobservant, so he’s shocked when Takeichi is the only person who recognizes that Yozo is constantly pretending to… read analysis of Takeichi

Yoshiko is 17 years old when she meets Yozo. She works across the street from the bar he frequents in Kyobashi, and she often tells him that he needs to drink less. One night… read analysis of Yoshiko

Horiki is one of Yozo’s college peers in Tokyo. Horiki is a somewhat self-satisfied painter who considers himself something of a rebel. He takes Yozo under his wing and introduces him to drinking, smoking… read analysis of Horiki

Tsuneko is a bartender who serves Yozo one night when he doesn’t have enough money to pay for his drinks. A sad soul, she takes pity on Yozo and spends the entire evening with him… read analysis of Tsuneko

Flatfish is an old acquaintance of Yozo’s father. When Yozo is arrested for being an “accomplice to a suicide,” the authorities require him to arrange for somebody to pick him up and watch over… read analysis of Flatfish

Shizuko is a woman who has a relationship with Yozo after he runs away from Flatfish’s house. Her husband died several years ago, and she works for a magazine that occasionally publishes Horiki’s… read analysis of Shizuko

Shigeko is Shizuko’s daughter. She takes a liking to Yozo when he lives with her and her mother, but she unintentionally wounds him by talking one day about her late father, saying that she… read analysis of Shigeko

Yozo endears himself to the bartender from Kyobashi by telling her one night that he left Shizuko for her. In response, the kind bartender lets him live in an apartment above the bar. Although he… read analysis of The Bartender from Kyobashi

The pharmacist is an elderly woman who gives Yozo morphine. Yozo first meets her after trying to die by suicide for the second time in his life. In the aftermath of this failed suicide, he… read analysis of The Pharmacist