It is about a resourceful boy, Genichiro Ryu, as he survives a series of natural disasters and collapse of the economy in Japan set in the beginning of the 21st century.

Tensions go high in various Japanese refugee camps overseas between the residents of countries that wish to help them and those who promote kicking them off due to taking local jobs and wasting resources.

They are accompanied by Ryoutarou Hata aka Yui Liao Ming, a naturalized Taiwanese of Japanese origin and ex-Taipei City Police Department (TCPD) plainclothes officer (whose family was stranded in Taiwan after the earthquakes) who seeks to find out what's happening after Japan was divided.

A Spirit of the Sun, written and illustrated by Kaiji Kawaguchi, was serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic from 2002 to 2008, with its chapters collected in seventeen tankōbon volumes, released from May 30, 2003 to February 29, 2008.

[27] In 2006, A Spirit of The Sun, along with Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin by Masasumi Kakizaki and George Abe, received the 51st Shogakukan Manga Award for the General category.