Famous People in Japan



Funado Yoichi

Date of Birth 8 February 1944
Place of Birth Shimonoseki

Funado Yoichi is one of the famous adventure novel writers in Japan. He was born on February 8 in 1944 at Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi prefecture. He graduated Waseda University. During his college days he belonged to the expedition club. He experienced many adventure trips abroad such as living with Inuits in Alaska. In 1969 he began to work at the publishing company, Shogakkan while he was still student. The next year he graduated the university and left the company.

After he experienced the traveling to Madagascar and working at another publishing company, he became free writer of documentary literature. He wrote about nation liberating armies in the world.

Since 1979 he began to write adventure novels using his skill on gathering data about world affairs. He made his debut with "Higouhouinn" (The Illegal) and got a lot of attentions. In 1985 he released long novel "Yamaneko no natsu" (The Summer of Wildcat), was awarded The Yoshikawa Eiji Freshman Literature Prize and The Grand Japan Adventure Novel Association Prize.

In 1989,The Japan Detective Novel Writer Association awarded him a prize for "Dennsetsunaki chi"(The Land Without Legend). In 1992, The Prize of Yamamoto Shuugorou was awarded for "suna no chronicle" (The Sand Chronicle). There are many famous books written by him such as "Yoru no Odyssey" (Odyssey of Nights), "Bannzokudomo" (The Bandits), "Takeki Hakobune" (The Violent Ark).

References: Dictionary of popular people

Reported by: Yoshinobu Mori
Data verified by: Yutaka Okamura
Date of Report: October 1999
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