REVIEW: Net Café Refugee

©️Net Café Refugee Production

In a city as vast and international as Tokyo, where it seems anyone can find a place to belong, there are still those quietly slipping through the cracks. Net Café Refugee brings our attention to people who seek shelter not only from the rain but from society itself.

Inside an internet café, four strangers have carved out fragile routines in their tiny private booths. One is a young man, bullied and socially isolated, who hides away, gaming and watching the girl in the next booth. She is involved in compensated dating, using the money to chase after her favourite Japanese idol, a model or aspiring actor. Another is a disillusioned salaryman who has opted out of the so-called “slave-labour” system in search of freedom by freelancing. Then there is a British YouTuber, clinging to the hope that his niche videos on Japanese culture might finally go viral and bring him online fame.

Mika Shirahama’s set recreates the interior of an internet café with careful attention to detail. Wooden frames delineate the tiny booths where each character lives in quiet seclusion. The glowing light from computer monitors serves as a haunting reminder of their loneliness. These frames also shift into kitchen counters and doorways, allowing characters to move between private and shared spaces. Yet even in communal areas like the showers or curry kitchen, interactions remain cautious and brief. The line “No offence, but boundaries” captures the quietly enforced distance that feels very specific to Japanese social dynamics.

Written by Yuya Sato, the play is based on interviews with real people and offers glimpses into how some young people in Japan are coping with life, especially considering the ongoing economic downturn. Non-permanent workers now make up a growing share of the workforce, and many young people are increasingly disillusioned with traditional expectations. Each character seems to be holding on to something, whether it’s a hobby, an obsession, or a hope, as a way to avoid facing harder questions about the future. Ami Nagano’s direction and movement work allow the story to breathe. The discovery of a hidden surveillance camera creates the event that draws the characters out of isolation and into conversation, but the play resists turning it into a dramatic twist.

Although the term ‘Net Café Refugee’ has existed in Japan for years and is not directly tied to geopolitics, it inevitably resonates with contemporary associations of displacement. Yet this play is about the quieter forms of refuge people seek in everyday life. When Mr Tea says, “I see you,” it’s a moment of simple, human recognition. However, whether that feeling can be translated across cultures and still retain its meaning is a question the play leaves open. Ultimately, it leaves us with a quiet meditation on loneliness, fragile connections, and the unspoken boundaries that shape urban existence.

★★★

For more information, please visit: https://cptheatre.co.uk/whatson/NET-CAFE-REFUGEE

Credits

Cast: Yuya Sato, Jack Bolton, Nobuo Otsuka, Mia Sumida
Director & Movement Director & Dramaturg: Ami Nagano
Playwright & Executive Producer: Yuya Sato
Assistant Director: Shyann Ong
Choreographer: Ching Chen
Producer & Associate Director: Hana Tamaru
Co-producer: Qi Wang
Set Designer: Mika Shirahama
Sound Designer & Composer: Lian Dyogi
Vocal Coach: Zoe Zimin Ho
Flyer Design: Cierra Cost