This thesis deals with the topic of significance of a side character in Haruki Murakami’s work. In the beginning of the theses cultural and historical context under which Murakami lives and creates is clarified together with the context of 19th and 20th centuries Japanese literature. The thesis depicts how Murakami uses side characters in order to represent a certain problem or a segment from human life that should be observed from a personal perspective to the main character and the reader alike. Side characters also represent conflicts residing in the main character, that carries the role of a mediator between the reader and the world where the side character’s function and push the story forwards. Taking the viewpoints of the side character to account, the reader can find the answers to particular challenges set up in the novel, even when the protagonist fails to do that. For the sake of deeper analyses of the side characters, the following works have been used: Norwegian Wood, Sputnik Sweetheart, and Kafka on the Shore.