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The Five Eras
August 7, 2026 at 09:15 AM
Corrected the 1943 Osaka entry from edging toward war to already at war, added an era-by-era entertainment section, and documented Kamurocho as the district shown in the 1965 Shinjuku chapter
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN unfolds across five cities and five eras of modern Japan, each a distinct chapter in Makoto Daito's fifty-year journey. The story begins earlier still, in San Francisco in 1915, before Makoto departs for Japan.
Year | City | Setting |
|---|---|---|
1915 | Kokura | An industrial town in Fukuoka, home to one of the world's largest foundries |
1929 | Kure | A port in Hiroshima dominated by Japan's largest naval arsenal |
1943 | Minami, Osaka | Western Japan's largest entertainment district, set against the rising tension of a world already at war |
1951 | Atami | A postwar seaside resort in Shizuoka, synonymous with tourism |
1965 | Shinjuku, Tokyo | Japan's most iconic pleasure district, and the saga's finale |
Each era reflects its moment in history, from industry and wartime to postwar recovery. The 1951 Atami chapter in particular highlights the American cultural influence sweeping postwar Japan. As the decades pass, the world and its characters change around Makoto.
The developers have said they favor a believable dramatization over strict historical accuracy. The cities are not exact replicas of their real-world counterparts, and real events from each era are generally left out unless they tie directly into Makoto's story.
Each era carries its own culture and its own amusements, and the game leans on that contrast. In 1915 Kokura, a town crowded with foundry workers and without modern entertainment, the diversions on offer are drinking, gambling, and buying pleasure. By 1929 Kure, foreign culture has begun to filter into the port, and the entertainment on offer changes with it. Later chapters continue the pattern, so what there is to do in a city is part of how each era is characterised. See Side Activities for the wider list of pastimes.
Official listings describe the fifth chapter's setting as Shinjuku, Tokyo. Screenshots released for that chapter show its entertainment quarter signed as Kamurocho, with an illuminated gate over Tenkaichi Street. The wider Shinjuku setting is the labelled location; Kamurocho is the district within it that the released material puts on screen.
The opening in 1915 San Francisco establishes Makoto's origins and the prejudice that sets him on the path to Japan. It serves as the starting point of the story rather than one of the five main Japanese chapters.
