"He-y, Come on Ou-t!" was originally written in Japanese in 1971 and translated into English by Stanleigh Jones seven years later. Its author, Shinichi Hoshi, was best known as a science fiction writer, and indeed, this short story was popularized in the West as part of a collection, The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories (edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John L. Apostolou) in 1989. However, it is arguable how far this story truly fits into the genre of science fiction, which usually deals with futuristic societies which have been significantly changed by scientific advances. In this story, there is no great technological advance. The hole is not created as a result of modern or futuristic science; on the contrary, it appears that it has always been there. What has changed in this society is what the people choose to do with it. 

At its core, the story seems to be concerned with ecological matters; this is made explicit through references to nuclear waste, the first thing the concessionaire considers using the hole to dispose of. As far as the concessionaire is concerned, the hole is simply a financial opportunity: while the villagers are initially wary about the effects of having nuclear waste disposed of in their community, their worries are assuaged by the promise of financial gain. They are willing to set aside their fears about nuclear waste in return for money and a more "convenient" shrine at which to focus their attention. It is notable that, in the story, the scientist who comes to investigate the hole is left "baffled" by it, but this does not prevent the concessionaire from declaring that it would be "perfect" for disposing of nuclear waste and that "there would be absolutely no above-ground contamination for several thousand years." This is surmise on the part of the concessionaire. He does not actually know what the long-term effects of nuclear waste disposal might be on this community, just as we today do not really know what the effect of nuclear energy usage may ultimately be on our environment. However, he is willing to minimize the threat in order to make money, and the villagers, in turn, are willing to accept the concessionaire's promises, partly for financial reasons but also, in large part, because they do not want to think about the issue further.

This issue of avoidance is one which Hoshi seems to be highlighting as a fundamental facet of human nature, not only with regard to the environment, but in a more general sense. The bottomless hole into which the people of the city thrust everything they no longer wish to think about is an obvious symbol in this story, but another one is the shrine, and the replacement one erected by the concessionaire in a more convenient location. The villagers do not know what the purpose was of the original shrine, but as soon as it is washed away, they believe it should be erected again. The shrine offers them a focal point. Initially, of course, the purpose of the old shrine was to cover the hole: when a change in the environment causes the hole to be revealed, the villagers want to cover it up again. This seems to symbolize a general disinclination to confront difficult matters and perhaps a desire to use religion and artifice as a distraction. Thanks to the capitalistic impulses of the concessionaire, the new shrine is more "convenient" for the villagers. It no longer covers the hole in a literal sense, but it performs the same function of distracting the villagers from the hole and what...