Yasutaka Tsutsui

Who is Yasutaka Tsutsui?

Yasutaka Tsutsui is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. Along with Shinichi Hoshi and Sakyo Komatsu, he is one of the most famous science fiction writers in Japan. His Yumenokizaka bunkiten won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. In 1997, he was decorated as a Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

His work is known for its dark humour and satirical content. He has often satirized Japanese taboos such as disabilities and the Tenno system, and has been victim to much criticism as a result. From 1993 to 1996, he went on a writing-strike to protest the excessive, self-imposed restraint of Japanese publishers.

One of his first novels, Toki o Kakeru Shōjo, has been adapted into numerous media including film, television and manga. Another novel, Paprika, was adapted into an animated film by the director Satoshi Kon in 2006.

Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, a collection of Tsutsui's short stories translated by Andrew Driver, was published by Alma Books in October 2006 and again by Pantheon Books in 2008.