Trouble With the Neighbors
隣家の悩み
Rinka no nayami

Hazama is a typical salaryman with a friendly boss and a nosy apartment building manager. Hazama lives in a company owned apartment complex next to his boss, Ukita, who is married to a much younger and very attractive woman named Mariko. Unfortunately, his job has taken him away from home and his new bride, Yukarin, who is pregnant. Almost every night Ukita insists on going out drinking with Hazama, who dutifully drags his stumbling drunk boss back home to his lovely wife.

After one such night, Hazama finds a note under his door that simply says "Mariko Ukita is having an affair." He mentions this to the apartment manager who tells him that something had happened to the previous tenant of his apartment. It turned out the man who lived there prior to him had also been accused of having an affair with Mariko and, ironicallly, also worked under Mr. Ukita. Before long similar letters were spread throughout the apartment building and the man moved away out of shame. Now, it seems to be happening yet again. Hazama explains to the apartment manager that he loves his wife, but upon showing her a picture of Yukarin (who is quite fat), no one seems to believe that he could really choose her over the beautiful Mariko. Soon Hazama is having to drag his boss back home after another night of drinking, where her confesses to Mariko that he recieved a letter about an affair. She mentions that it has happened before, but the very next day Hazama finds a photograph of himself that shows him speaking with Mariko. It seems someone was watching them the previous night.

Mariko finds a sack of photos showing her talking with Hazama, and soon she and Hazama catch the culprit in the act. It turns out that her own husband was surrepticiously photographing her, but while he was taking the photographs he points out that he was out of the country when the first letter was sent. Depressed, Mariko admits that she sent the first letter out of frustration that her husband was spending so little time with her. With that settled, the party realizes that someone still took the first photograph of Hazama talking to Mariko. Suddenly Hazama's pregnant wife sheepishly comes forward, admitting that she drove up to see Hazama one night and found him talking to the beautiful Mrs. Ukita. With the misunderstanding all cleared up, the two couples happily iron out their differences.

Chapter Details

	Published In: Big Comic Original 2011 Vol. 3.20 Birds of Fate
	Publication Date: March 5, 2011
	Pages: 4 (full color) 4 (red tint) 25 (black and white)
	Anime Adaptation: None
Notes: Even though his wife is pregnant Hazama has to move away from her and live on his own due to his job, this is a practice known as tanshinfunin (単身赴任), which literally means “to be sent somewhere alone.” It has its roots in the sankin kotai system of the Edo period, in which the Shogunate required the daimyo, or regional lords, to spend every other year in the capital, and to leave their families there (as hostages in a sense) when they returned to their domains the alternate years. Not only did this system make the daimyo themselves tanshinfunin, but large numbers of their retinues were in the same situation. Today, following in this tradition, Japanese companies move people around to a greater extent than is common in the U.S. Generally, people know that the rotations will only last a few years. So rather than uproot the family, the father will travel to the out of town location by plane or shinkansen (bullet train) each week, live in a corporate apartment, and return home for the weekend. It’s a sacrifice that he makes for the sake of his company and for the sake of his family. And in the Japanese context, it is considered completely normal to give employees assignments that are likely to require such a sacrifice. Ukita's title is kachou (課長) are just below buchou in a corporate hierarchy. They are the chiefs of every subsection within departments. In order to become a kachou, you usually need 15 years or more of dedication to the company.