Shinya Tanaka

Shinya Tanaka is a Japanese novelist born on November 29, 1972, in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. He debuted in 2005 with Tsumetai Mizu no Hitsuji (Cold Water Sheep), winning the Shincho New Writers Award, and achieved major recognition with the Akutagawa Prize in 2012 for Tomogui (Cannibals), along with earlier wins of the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Award and Mishima Yukio Award. After high school, he spent 15 years as a hikikomori, intensively reading literature before becoming one of Japan's prominent literary fiction authors. Honford Star