The Great Passage

Kouhei Araki, a longtime editor in Genbu Publishing’s dictionary department, is preparing to step away from work so he can devote himself to his ailing wife. Before he can retire, he needs someone capable of carrying on his most important undertaking: compiling a new dictionary titled *The Great Passage*. It’s a task that demands uncommon patience, time, and commitment—qualities Araki struggles to find in a successor.

He sets his sights on Mitsuya Majime, a salesman at the same company whose awkward social sense often leaves him out of step with others. What Majime lacks in polish, he makes up for with a deep love of reading and a careful, word-focused temperament that suits the meticulous world of lexicography. Offered a place on the editorial team, he steps into unfamiliar territory, unsure whether he belongs among his new colleagues—yet the shared pursuit of language gradually begins to connect them.