The majority of the Japanese texts listed above would have been beyond my ability to read in Japanese. I am therefore extremely grateful to Shunichirō Nagashima and especially to Junzo Sawa for the hundreds of pages of translations they provided me with, including from the Japanese press. They also discussed the case at length with me. However, this novel does not reflect their thoughts on the case, nor can it repay the debt I owe to them both, but thank you. Akiko Miyake also provided a lot of further information and translations, particularly in relation to Tokyo in the years 1964 and 1988. Akiko and Stephen Barber and I spent many hours walking the various sites in the novel, discussing the case, and the times, and the lives of expatriates and writers in Japan. I am very grateful to both Akiko and Stephen; thank you.
The sheer volume of material written about the case was, in part, responsible for the ten-year delay in completing the manuscript. I am very grateful for the patience and support of my publishers in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and Spain, in particular. The joyless task of excusing and apologizing for the delay in delivery fell to my agent Hamish Macaskill of the English Agency Japan. I am very grateful to him for all his work on my behalf, and especially for his enthusiasm and belief in this book over such an extended period. Thank you, too, to Rob Kraitt at Casarotto Ramsay for his work.
I would also like to thank the following people for their help during the writing of this book: Ian Bahrami, Matteo Battarra, Andrew Benbow, Phillip Breen, Martin Colthorpe, Ian Cusack, Walter Donohue, Paul French, Mike Handford, Christopher Harding, Noriko Hasegawa, Ben Hervey, Atsushi Hori, David Karashima, Chris Lloyd, Justin McCurry, David Mitchell, Naoko Murozono, Kyoko Nakajima, Kazuo Okanoya, Richard Lloyd Parry, Roger Pulvers, Ann Scanlon, Mark Schreiber, Katy Shaw, Motoyuki Shibata, Peter Thompson, Paul Tickell, Rachel Toogood, David Turner, and Cathi Unsworth.
For their comments and suggestions on the various drafts of the novel, I am very grateful to Angus Cargill and Sonny Mehta, and to Hamish Macaskill, Akiko Miyake, and Jon Riley for theirs, too.
Finally, I would never have had the confidence to begin, continue, and then finish the Tokyo Trilogy without the belief, counsel, and enthusiasm of William Miller –
Thank you, dear William, love, love.