Synopsis

Silent poor are the needy who have no voice. This “invisible poverty” is now spreading throughout society. The job of a community social worker has appeared across the country in order to tackle this issue. Satomi Ryo, a community social worker for the Social Welfare Council of Tokyo’s old working class neighbourhoods, runs around her beloved districts as she coaches her junior Miwa Manaka. This is where Ryo meets people such as the garbage hoarder, reclusive, homeless and prematurely senile who are trying hard to live but have sunk into the abyss of social isolation in today’s world. Picking out their SOS, Ryo offers a helping hand to them and is exposed to their lives, but even she nurses an abject loneliness herself. One day, Ryo visits a house after local residents complain that the compound is overflowing with garbage from hoarding. However, the owner is an elderly woman called Eda Fusae. Ryo tries to persuade Fusae, but it is not easy to get her to open up her heart. Realising that it was the loss of her beloved son that made Fusae started hoarding garbage, Ryo focuses on a chestnut tree in the garden. She convinces Yamakura Yuichi, the head of the Welfare Division of the ward office, and attempts to get the neighbours to understand Fusae’s situation in the move towards removing the garbage. It is her belief that people can start their lives over as many times as they like that keeps her going. What Ryo discovers down the road, is that she has embarked on a new chapter in life with the support of the people and the neighbourhoods that she had reached out to.