The Great Passage

舟を編む

Kohei Araki, a veteran dictionary editor at Genbu Shobo nearing retirement, needs a successor and finds one in Mitsuya Majime, a withdrawn salesman who is hopeless at conversation but devoted to words. Recruited into the dictionary department, Majime joins the sociable Masashi Nishioka to compile a new mid-sized Japanese dictionary called The Great Passage. The painstaking, years-long work draws the awkward Majime out of himself as the small team chases definitions one word at a time.