Being left-handed means running into small, everyday "that's so me" moments — things that right-handed people would probably never notice.
This illustrated series, Left-Handed Life in Japan: A Manga Series, captures those little slices of daily life in comic form. We hope you find yourself nodding along.
For left-handers, writing comes with a problem most right-handers never think about: the hand drags right across the words you just wrote, smudging fresh ink before it has time to dry. Pen, paper, and your own hand all end up a mess.
Over the years, lefties develop their own quiet workarounds — quick-dry pens, tilting the paper at an angle, or hovering the hand just above the line as they write. Small tricks, learned through trial and error.
And then there's one happy exception: vertical writing, still used in Japan and parts of East Asia today. When characters are written top to bottom, a left-handed hand never has to cross the ink at all — no smudges, no drama. For once, the writing direction works with you instead of against you.
Illustrated by Haru Kawase Manga artist and illustrator. Based in Japan. Debut work: "Three Mysterious Days to Get Myself Back" (2021). Also known for "Good Morning, Tail" and "Kumasaki-san" (Bungeishunju). Left-handed.
