Norwegian Wood (novel) - Characters

Characters

• Toru Watanabe (ワタナベ トオル, Watanabe Tōru?) — The main character and narrator. He is a Tokyo college student of average ability, majoring in drama but without reason or conviction for doing so. Unlike most students, he is interested in Western, and in particular, American literature. He is Kizuki's best friend, and develops romantic relationships with Naoko, and later, Midori.
• Naoko (直子, Naoko?) — a beautiful but emotionally fragile woman who is Kizuki's girlfriend, but becomes involved with Toru after Kizuki's death. Naoko's older sister committed suicide at age 17, which, along with Kizuki's suicide, has a lasting effect on Naoko's emotional stability.
• Midori Kobayashi (小林 緑, Kobayashi Midori?) — a vivacious, outgoing classmate of Toru. She and her sister help their father run a small bookstore. She originally had a boyfriend but develops feelings for Toru as she gets to know him more, putting Toru in a tough situation.
• Reiko Ishida (石田 玲子, Ishida Reiko?) — an inmate of the mountain asylum to which Naoko retreats. She and Naoko room together and become close friends. An accomplished pianist and guitarist, Reiko has endured lifelong mental problems that wrecked her professional musical career and later her marriage. She attempts to advise Toru and Naoko in their relationship.
• Kizuki (キズキ, Kizuki?) — Toru's best friend in high school, and Naoko's first boyfriend. Kizuki took his own life when he was 17.
• Nagasawa (永沢, Nagasawa?) — a diplomacy student at the elite University of Tokyo whose friendship with Toru is kindled over The Great Gatsby, a book both love. Nagasawa is unusually charismatic and is complex in both his ideals and personal relationships. Toru routinely accompanies Nagasawa on outings to bars, where they pick up girls for one-night stands.
• Hatsumi (ハツミ, Hatsumi?) — the long-suffering girlfriend of Nagasawa. A kind woman by nature, she tries to offer advice to Toru, but Toru is reluctant to confide in her or Nagasawa. Two years after Nagasawa leaves for Germany, Hatsumi marries, only to commit suicide after another two years. News of this prompts Toru to break off his relations with Nagasawa.
• "Storm Trooper" (突撃隊, Totsugekitai?) — Toru's dormitory roommate who is obsessed with cleanliness, and who is majoring in cartography in preparation for a career at the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan. He later moves out, leaving their room entirely to Toru until he moves out of the dorm altogether.
• Itoh — an art student whom Toru meets after moving out of the dorm he shared with Nagasawa and Storm Trooper. The two share a love of Boris Vian. He has a girlfriend in his hometown of Nagasaki, but her unease about Itoh's chosen career leads him to unease about their relationship.
• Momoko "Momo" Kobayashi — Midori's sister.
• Mr. Kobayashi — Midori's widowed father. Midori had initially said that he had emigrated to Uruguay, but that later turns out to be a joke; Mr. Kobayashi was actually in a hospital in Tokyo, with brain cancer. When Midori and Toru visit him, Toru briefly stays to take care of him alone. He later dies, and his daughters sell the bookstore to move to new quarters.