Author Jiro Akagawa

The happiness of being able to do what you love for a living. A belief that has remained unchanged for over 70 years

作家　Chinese New Year Gift(Akagawa Jiro)

■ Profile
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1948. Won the All-Readers Mystery Novel Newcomer Award in 1976 for Ghost Train. In addition to mysteries such as the Calico Cat Holmes series, he has also written a wide range of suspense, horror, and romance novels. In 1980 he won the Kadokawa Novel Prize for Requiem for a Bad Wife, and in 2016 he won the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Prize for Tokyo Year Zero. He has written many books, including Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, The Two of Us, Little Sister, and Heaven and Hell.

■What made you want to become a novelist?

To tell the truth, I never once thought about becoming a writer. That's because I was influenced by the manga of Osamu Tezuka and loved making up stories from a young age. I continued drawing manga from the age of three until I entered junior high school, but my drawing skills never caught up and I thought I was pretty bad at it.
When I was in my third year of junior high school and lamenting my lack of drawing skills, I came across a book called "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Until then, I had only read difficult books without understanding their meaning, but when I discovered that there were novels that entertained people, I thought maybe I could write something entertaining like that, so I started writing novels. I've been writing continuously for the past 60 years.
At first, I was just writing because I enjoyed it, with no intention of submitting it anywhere, but then a colleague I met at work after graduating from high school invited me to publish a collection of poems, so we distributed the ones we had written to the company employees. They told me they found them interesting, and I realized that there were people who found what I wrote interesting, which led me to start applying for scripts and novels.

■Please tell us your thoughts on the novel.

Originally, creating stories and writing stories were just hobbies for me, so I'm really happy to be able to turn my hobby into a job. I can't do whatever I want because there are deadlines, but if there weren't deadlines I wouldn't write (laughs).
The most important thing for me when writing novels is not to pander to the reader. It's entertainment, so it's important to please the reader, but that's not the same as pandering to them. If you start writing to pander to them, you'll no longer find writing enjoyable. That's the end of it. I just want to write what I like, how I like, and be grateful if readers follow me.

■Please give us a message for university students

I hope that you will read books and visit art exhibitions to discover the ever-changing beauty of things that your seniors have praised. It is important to always be exposed to good things. Encountering things that you think are beyond your reach will motivate you to make an effort.

Student Newspaper, October 1, 2022 Issue, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 10rd Year, Chiaki Hata