Famous People in Japan



Nishimura Kyotaro

Date of Birth 6 September 1930
Place of Birth Tokyo

Nishimura Kyotaro is a famous detective novelist. He graduated from Tokyo-to-ritsu Denkikogyo High School, and he was a public official for ten years. He quit this job to become a novelist, and he had many jobs, trucker, guard, and private detective, till his first novel, "Kuro no Kioku", was published in 1961.

In 1963, he won the All Yomimono Suiri Shosetsu Award for his novel, "Yuganda Asa". In 1965, He also won the Edogawa Ranpo Award for "Tenshi no Kizuato", which dealt with problems about a prejudice against the handicapped, and in 1978, he wrote "Shindai-tokkyu Satsujinjiken", his first novel that dealt with tricks using trains. These kind of stories called "Travel-Mystery" became very popular, and for "Shuchakueki Satsujinjiken", his third novel of this kind, he won the Japan Detective Novelist Association Award in 1980.

Now, he continues to write good novels, as an authority on "Travel-Mysteries". "Totsugawa Keibu" series, which are his important works of this kind, are very famous, and many of them can be seen on TV.

References: Gendai Nihonjin Meiroku, 1994

Reported by: Tsuchida Kenji
Data verified by: Murakami Tadashi
Date of Report: November 1996

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