Japanese Women Novelists

Vote for Your Favourite Japanese Women Novelists

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 1 
Megumi Yokota
(Writer)
Megumi Yokota
3
Birthdate: October 5, 1964
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Died: November 15, 1977

Megumi Yokota is a Japanese woman who was among at least 17 Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. Yokota was kidnapped by a North Korean agent in 1977. Yokota has been missing for more than 43 years and several Japanese citizens have waged a campaign seeking her return. However, the North Korean government has claimed that she died in captivity.

 2 
Ai Iijima
(Japanese Media Personality, Writer and Actress)
Ai Iijima
3
Birthdate: October 31, 1972
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Kameido, Tokyo, Japan
Died: December 17, 2008

Ai Iijima was a Japanese writer, media personality, actress, and activist. She is best remembered for appearing in a softcore porn variety TV show titled Gilgamesh Night. After ending her career as a softcore porn actress, Iijima became associated with campaigns that aimed at educating people about HIV/AIDS.

 3 
Murasaki Shikibu
3
Birthdate: 0973 AD
Birthplace: Kyoto
Died: 1014 AD

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese poet and novelist. She is credited with authoring one of the world's first novels, The Tale of Genji. Murasaki's works played a key role in establishing Japanese as a written language and she continues to influence Japanese writers. Over the years, she has also been a popular subject of illustrations and paintings in Japan.

 4 
Banana Yoshimoto
(Writer)
Banana Yoshimoto
3
Birthdate: July 24, 1964
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bunkyō-ku

Banana Yoshimoto is a Japanese writer whose debut work Kitchen inspired a couple of film adaptations. Kitchen also earned her the sixth Kaien Newcomers' Literary Prize in 1987. The following year, she received the 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for a novella titled Moonlight Shadow. Her 1989 novel Goodbye Tsugumi inspired the 1990 movie Tugumi.

 5 
Ichiyō Higuchi
(Japan’s First Professional Female Writer of Modern Literature)
Ichiyō Higuchi
2
Birthdate: May 2, 1872
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Uchisaiwaichō, Tokyo, Japan
Died: November 23, 1896
Ichiyō Higuchi was a noted Japanese writer, poet, and novelist from the Meiji Period. The most important Japanese woman writer of her period, Higuchi specialized in short stories and was Japan's first professional female writer of modern literature, and also an extensive diarist. Her stories Nigorie, Jūsan'ya, Ōtsugomori, and Takekurabe have been repeatedly adapted for film and television. 
 6 
Yōko Ogawa
(Japanese Writer)
Yōko Ogawa
2
Birthdate: March 30, 1962
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Okayama, Japan
Japanese writer Yōko Ogawa is well known for her works including The Diving Pool, The Housekeeper and the Professor, and Hotel Iris. Of her more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, some novels have been adapted as films. Her novel, The Housekeeper and the Professor, was made into the movie The Professor's Beloved Equation.
 7 
Yuyuko Takemiya
(Japanese Novelist)
Yuyuko Takemiya
2
Birthdate: February 24, 1978
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Yuyuko Takemiya is a Japanese writer of light novels and manga who rose to fame with her debut series Watashitachi no Tamura-kun. Her other popular works include series like Golden Time, Toradora!, and Evergreen. In 2011, Takemiya launched the manga series Evergreen with artist Akira Kasukabe in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh Genesis quarterly magazine.
 8 
Natsuo Kirino
(Novelist, Writer)
Natsuo Kirino
2
Birthdate: October 7, 1951
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Kanazawa

Widely known by her penname, Natsuo Kirino, celebrated Japanese writer, Mariko Hashioka, began her writing career in her early thirties, earning a degree in law, attending script-writing classes and doing odd jobs before that.  When her initial attempt to write romantic novels proved a non-starter she switched to mystery, very soon becoming a leading figure in the Japanese detective fictions.   

 9 
Yūko Tsushima
(Writer, Novelist, Short story writer, Literary critic)
Yūko Tsushima
2
Birthdate: March 30, 1947
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Mitaka
Died: February 18, 2016

One of Japan's most distinguished female authors, Yūko Tsushima wrote mostly about marginalized section of the society, including abandoned women who try to break out of the assigned gender roles, drawing many of the characters from her personal experience as single mother. Winner of numerous national and international awards, her works have been translated into at least 13 languages.

 10 
Enchi Fumiko
(Japanese Writer Best Known for Her Explorations Into the Ideas of Sexuality, Gender, Human Identity, and Spirituality)
Enchi Fumiko
1
Birthdate: October 2, 1905
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Died: November 12, 1986

Enchi Fumiko was a Japanese writer whose novel, Days of Hunger, earned her the Women's Literature Prize in 1954. One of the most important and popular women writers of the Shōwa era, Enchi also won the Noma Literary Prize for her novel The Waiting Years. Her works were renowned for incorporating elements of eroticism, realism, and fantasy.

 11 
Sawako Ariyoshi
(Japanese Writer Known for Such Works as 'The Doctor’s Wife' and 'The River Ki')
Sawako Ariyoshi
1
Birthdate: January 20, 1931
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Wakayama, Japan
Died: August 30, 1984

Sawako Ariyoshi was a Japanese writer best remembered for discussing social issues through her work. Widely regarded as one of the most famous female writers in Japan, Ariyoshi was honored with several prestigious awards like the Fujin Kōron Readers’ Award and Art Selection Minister of Education Award. Her novel, The Doctor's Wife, established her as an excellent postwar Japanese writer.

 12 
Hitomi Kanehara
(Japanese Novelist)
Hitomi Kanehara
1
Birthdate: August 8, 1983
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Kanehara Hitomi is a Japanese novelist whose most popular work Hebi ni piasu earned her the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize, apart from selling more than a million copies in Japan alone. Renowned for incorporating elements like violence, eroticism, and self-harm into her works, Kanehara's novels have been translated into over 12 languages worldwide.

 13 
Shungicu Uchida
(Japanese Manga Artist, Novelist and Essayist)
Shungicu Uchida
1
Birthdate: August 7, 1959
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan

Shungicu Uchida is a Japanese manga artist, essayist, actress, and singer. She is also known by the pen name Shungicu Uchida. She had a difficult childhood marked by abuse and neglect and dropped out of school as a teenager. She worked many odd jobs before being able to establish herself as a manga artist. 

 14 
Risa Wataya
(Japanese Novelist)
Risa Wataya
1
Birthdate: February 1, 1984
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Kyōto, Japan

Risa Wataya is a Japanese novelist whose short novel Keritai senaka earned her the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. Many of her works have been translated into several languages including English, Italian, French, and German. Over the course of her career, Risa Wataya has won many awards like the Kenzaburo Oe Prize.

 15 
Sue Sumii
(Japanese Novelist Best Known for Her Novel ‘Hashi no nai kawa')
Sue Sumii
0
Birthdate: January 7, 1902
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Nara, Japan
Died: June 16, 1997

Sue Sumii was a Japanese writer and social reformer. She openly spoke up for victims of discrimination in Japanese society, especially the Burakumin. A professionally qualified teacher, she took to writing to express her views on social issues. As a writer, she is most remembered for her novel, Hashi no nai kawa ("The River with No Bridge").