The film is set in Tokyo at an unspecified point in the near future when the Japanese yen has become the strongest currency in the world. This attracts an influx of Immigration, legal and illegal, to work in the city. The immigrants give the city the nickname . The Japanese natives, however, despise the nickname, and in retribution call the immigrants by the homophone , anglicised as "Yentowns" in the film's English subtitles. <ref name=Yomota></ref>