Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is the fifth book in the heartwarming Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Set in the cosy Tokyo café where visitors are given a mysterious opportunity to travel back in time, this emotional Japanese novel explores love, family, regret, forgiveness, and the importance of finding closure.

As the café welcomes four new visitors, each arrives carrying something unfinished from their past. Among them is a father struggling to accept his daughter’s marriage, a woman who could not give Valentine’s Day chocolates to someone she loves, a boy wishing to show his smile to his divorced parents, and a wife holding a child without a name.

As with every journey at the café, visitors must follow its strict rules and return to the present before their coffee gets cold. Although travelling to the past cannot change what has already happened, these brief encounters can provide comfort, understanding, and a chance to face emotions that have remained unresolved.