I have read some people saying that No Longer Human is misogynistic. After reading The Setting Sun, another book by Osamu Dazai, I think the misogyny in that book is often misunderstood.
The main character in No Longer Human seems to blame the women in his life about his problems but it’s clear that these women only try to help him and that he’s the one who is destroying his life. I interpreted the misogynistic comments as another aspect of the delusions of a deeply disturbed guy. Like of course someone delusional like that is going to blame women for his problems. People also often forget that there’s a part of the book where the protagonist literally says that women are more honorable than men.
This becomes even more obvious if you read the Setting Sun, another book that features a self-destructive guy, Naoji, who has a sister who is not perfect but also clearly the more reasonable and dependable of the two. In fact there’s a scene where their mother is literally dying and the daughter is constantly there doing what she can to help, while the son is basically being useless and drunk all the time. I doubt this is something that someone who believed men are better/superior would write.
TL;DR Was Dazai sexist? Yes, but not more than any other Japanese guy of his time. From reading The Setting Sun it is clear to me that he’s not very misogynistic and that the comments in NLH are meant to show how disturbed and delusional the protagonist is.
by Serious_Guide_2424