A scene from the movie "Tokyo Jitensha Bushi" is seen in this image provided by film distributor nondelaico.

       TOKYO -- Pushed to the brink by the coronavirus pandemic, a 28-year-old man with no earnings and only around 300 yen (about $3) in his pocket chose to move to Tokyo to become an Uber Eats rider. For a month starting April 2020, when the country's first state of emergency was declared, he kept cycling around Japan's capital, filming himself and the cityscape using his smartphone and a small camera. Now the footage has become a documentary that premiered July 10.

       Taku Aoyagi, director of "Tokyo Jitensha Bushi," had been waiting for a chance to make his own film while doing video production work and part-time jobs for a designated driver service in his hometown in Yamanashi Prefecture. But the coronavirus took his work from him and left him without an income. It was then Aoyagi decided to find work in Tokyo.

       "I was also interested in Tokyo without its usual crowds. I started filming thinking maybe I could find something if I made records from the perspective of a delivery rider moving freely by bike," said Aoyagi.

       A scene from the movie "Tokyo Jitensha Bushi" is seen in this image provided by film distributor nondelaico.

       Workers for the Uber Eats food delivery service are contracted as sole proprietors. The company launched in Japan in September 2016, and has seen a surge in food delivery demand since last year as many have stayed home in the pandemic. Increasingly more people have started delivery jobs.

       Aoyagi recalled, "At first, I admired riders' work. I imagined them as connecting people in Tokyo, where the flow of people had been cut off, and giving the city a sense of humanity. But, actually, it turned out I mostly left products in front of doors, and rarely met customers face to face. I don't even know who my services helped. I realized I was only a part of a larger system."

       In the movie, Aoyagi faced incidents where his bike tires were punctured and his mobile phone, necessary for taking orders and checking maps, broke. The repairs expenses were about the same as his daily earnings. On top of this, he was shocked to discover he was uninsured for work-related accidents.

       Aoyagi said, "Even if I worked hard and earned, I couldn't save. Once I realized that, I felt we were expendable laborers. The employers don't think about your individual life or treat you as a person."

       Taku Aoyagi is seen leaving a delivery in front of a housing complex room at night, in an image from a scene in the movie "Tokyo Jitensha Bushi" provided by its distributor nondelaico.

       Aoyagi said loneliness started to set in as he worked while perceiving himself as "being incorporated into a profit-pursuing system." Around the same time, an elderly woman he met during breaks between deliveries told him her war experiences, and about how the area they were in had been razed to the ground. It made him say, without thinking, "Tokyo in 2020 has also been burned away."

       He elaborated, saying, "Of course, in reality, there are many buildings standing, and it's not a burned-out area because it's not like there was a fire or disaster. But, more and more people like me feel lonely as their hearts have hardened from accepting this reality where people are divided by a system someone else has created. The landscape in the minds of people whose hearts are becoming closed-off overlapped with the woman's words about a city razed to the ground. I thought, something terrible is happening."

       Kazuo Osawa, the movie's producer, expressed Aoyagi's "burned away" in even harsher terms, saying, "What we can see from Uber Eats is a system that exploits and enslaves people. This is the limit of capitalism. Individuals are being dragged into it and left at its mercy, and that's why they feel lonely."

       But Aoyagi says he hasn't made such definite conclusions. Uber has a "quest" system offering riders with extra money for achieving certain goals. "As someone who actually worked there, I understand well the feelings of those exploited. There were times when I would take on extremely packed schedules, making 70 deliveries over three days to earn a reward. It is also true that completing the quests gives you a sense of achievement and makes you feel you fulfilled your job. With an unclear outlook under the pandemic, I also understand why some people want to live while finding each moment rewarding."

       Taku Aoyagi, who still works as an Uber Eats rider following his film's release, is seen in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on June 30, 2021. (Mainichi/Chie Yamashita)

       Although the director had been depressed about not being able to see the faces of the customers he delivered to, the film shows him actively approaching and conversing with people he met in Tokyo. He gradually gained insight on life, and the movie shows how small interactions between strangers can give you hints for easing loneliness.

       Aoyagi said emphatically, "Firstly, I'd like people to enjoy watching the Tokyo cityscape of the time. I tried to depict what happened to me while including very real experiences. I'd be glad if people can use it as a step to thinking about society from a wider perspective."

       The movie premiered July 10 at Pole Pole HigashiNakano in the capital's Nakano Ward, and is set to for a nationwide release in future.

       (Japanese original by Chie Yamashita, Digital News Center)

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