Famous People in Japan



Nosaka Akiyuki

Date of Birth 10 October, 1930
Place of Birth Kanagawa

As soon as Nosaka was born, he was adopted into a certain family in Kobe. During the Second World War, Kobe was attacked from the air. His family couldn't stay together any more, and he stayed at a reformatory for two years as a war orphan. After that, his real family took care of him again, That experience had a great influence on his novels.

When he was the college student, he wrote some script for TV programs, wrote the words for the music of TV commercial and had a column in a magazine as part time jobs. In 1956, he dropped out of the faculty of French Letters in Waseda University. In 1963, he was awarded "Record Taisho" (Record Prize) in lyrics of "Cha Cha Cha

He have started writing in earnest with "Hiziki of America" and "A Grave of Firefly" in which he won Naoki prize. And also in 1985, he was awarded the Kodan company-Essay-prize, and the Yodogawa Eizi Prize.

Besides his writing, he ran for the member of the house of Councilors, but he defeated in that election. In 1973, he was finally elected. On the other hand, he is well known as a singer and a TV talent.

References: Nihon Jinmei Jiten

Reported by: Fumiko Tanaka
Data verified by: Kayoko Ishihama
Date of Report: July 1998

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