One thing I'll say is that the attitudes in this manga are about a decade old, which isn't a surprise since manga writers are typically 10 years behind trends due to story boarding and getting out of touch with mainstream culture as they get work and get older. Also add in the fact that manga...
So janky ass writing and plot baits aside, the pillow business stuff is a good example of the cycles of exploitation that the manga is great at exploring.
No idea if this manga is keeping trends with current event (doubt it, since the author seems out of touch with some current dojin market...
Relax, it's just a trope in manga. There are depressed and introverted boys in Japan, but it's just a writing device for this genre of manga. It's not a true reflection of Japanese high school boys, similar how any teenage character trope in Western writing is reflective of boys on the other...
It's not really that though, as Tokyo itself as grown, yet housing in Tokyo is extremely stable. Japan's housing market is extremely consumer friendly. Some of the laxest zoning laws in the developed world, the government builds a ton of housing so the private market has to compete against...