38 21st century Japanese novelists

Hiroyuki Agawa was a Japanese author. He was known for his fiction centered on World War II, as well as his biographies and essays.

Naoyuki Uchida , who writes under his pen name Yukito Ayatsuji , is a Japanese writer of mystery and horror. He is one of the founders of Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing. His wife is Fuyumi Ono, a Japanese fantasy and horror writer who is known for her fantasy series The Twelve Kingdoms.

Jun Henmi , real name Mayumi Shimizu , was a Japanese writer and poet born in Mizuhashi, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. She was known for her works of fiction and nonfiction about people affected by World War II. Henmi was the daughter of Gen'yoshi Kadokawa, founder of publisher Kadokawa Shoten and the older sister of Haruki Kadokawa.

David Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist and screenwriter.

Naoki Hyakuta is a Japanese novelist and television producer. He is known for his right-wing political views and denying Japanese war crimes prior to and during World War II. He is particularly known for his 2006 novel The Eternal Zero, which became a popular 2013 film, his controversial period as a governor of government broadcaster NHK, as well as his support of Nanjing Massacre denial.

Inoue Hisashi was a leading Japanese playwright and writer of comic fiction. From 1961 to 1986, he used the pen name of Uchiyama Hisashi.

Shintaro Ishihara is a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of right-leaning Japan Restoration Party, Ishihara is one of the most prominent conservative right-wing politicians in modern Japanese politics.

Hiromi Itō is one of the most prominent woman writers of contemporary Japan, with more than a dozen collections of poetry, several works of prose, numerous books of essays, and several major literary prizes to her name. She divides her time between the towns of Encinitas, California and Kumamoto in southern Japan. She is currently teaching at School of Culture, Media and Society in Waseda University, Tokyo.

Otohiko Kaga is a Japanese author. His real name is Sadataka Kogi.

Kazuma Kamachi is the pen name of a Japanese author who has published over 100 light novel volumes. He is best known for the creation of the A Certain Magical Index franchise which, as of 2019, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has been licensed in North America by Yen Press with the first novel being released in Q4 2014.

Morio Kita was the pen name of Sokichi Saitō , a Japanese psychiatrist, novelist and essayist.

Saiichi Maruya was a Japanese author and literary critic.

Toshinari Masuda, better known as Toshiya Masuda, is a Japanese novelist, essayist and martial arts historian.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. His work has received numerous awards, including the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.

Ryū Murakami is a Japanese novelist, short story writer, essayist and filmmaker. His novels explore human nature through themes of disillusion, drug use, surrealism, murder and war, set against the dark backdrop of Japan. His best known novels are Almost Transparent Blue, Coin Locker Babies and In the Miso Soup.

Michiko Nagai ; is a writer of historical fiction in Japan.

Fuminori Nakamura is the pseudonym of a Japanese author. Nakamura came to international attention when he won the 2010 Kenzaburō Ōe Prize for his novel, The Thief. The English translation of the novel was well received.

Kenzaburō Ōe is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism. Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".

Kunio Ogawa was a Japanese novelist born in Fujieda, Shizuoka.

Otsuichi is the pen name of Hirotaka Adachi , born 1978. He is a Japanese writer, mostly of horror short stories, as well as a filmmaker. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan and the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.

Eiji Ōtsuka is a social critic, folklorist, media theorist, and novelist. He is currently a professor at International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto. He graduated from University of Tsukuba with a degree in anthropology, women's folklore, human sacrifice and post-war manga. In addition to his work with manga he is a critic, essayist, and author of several successful non-fiction books on Japanese popular and otaku sub-cultures. He has written the Multiple Personality Detective Psycho and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service manga series. One of his first animation script works was Mahō no Rouge Lipstick, an adult lolicon OVA. Ōtsuka was the editor for the bishōjo lolicon manga series Petit Apple Pie.

Megumu Sagisawa was the pen name of Japanese novelist and writer Megumi Matsuo (松尾めぐみ). Her works of fiction have been described as focusing on topics such as complex interpersonal relationships and the anxieties of the youth.

Masahiko Shimada is a Japanese writer. He has won the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Itō Sei Literature Prize, and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. His work has been translated into English.

Motoyoshi Shimizu was the pen name of a Japanese novelist and poet, active during the Shōwa and Heisei periods of Japan. His real name was Shimizu Motoyoshi (清水基嘉), pronounced the same, but written in different kanji.

Saburō Shiroyama (1927–2007) is a Japanese novelist.

Ayako Sono is a Japanese writer.

Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet. Best known on the festival circuit for the film Love Exposure (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese cinema today".

Hikaru Sugii is a Japanese light novel author. In 2005, his debut work Hime no Miko won the Silver Prize at the 12th Dengeki Novel Prize.

Katsuhiko Takahashi is a Japanese writer of mystery, horror, science fiction and historical fiction. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan.

Mutsuo Takahashi is one of the most prominent and prolific male poets, essayists, and writers of contemporary Japan, with more than three dozen collections of poetry, several works of prose, dozens books of essays, and several major literary prizes to his name. He is especially well known for his open writing about male homoeroticism. He currently lives in the seaside town of Zushi, several kilometers south of Yokohama, Japan.

Kazumi Takayama is a Japanese idol singer, actress, television personality, and writer. She is a member of Japanese idol group Nogizaka46, co-author of the self-help book Investment Methods that Keep My Money Growing Even Though I'm An Idol, and author of the novel Trapezium.

Yukihide Takekawa is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Urawa-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture. He is best known for being the vocalist to the band Godiego as well as his solo career and his work as an author. Some of his compositions have been featured in video game, anime, films, and television drama soundtracks. These include the Galaxy Express 999 film, Saiyūki, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, Soul Blazer, and Choushinsei Flashman.

Novala Takemoto is the professional name of Toshiaki Takemoto , a Japanese author and fashion designer.

Yōko Tawada is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German. Tawada has won numerous literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Goethe Medal, the Kleist Prize, and a National Book Award.

Hitonari Tsuji is a Tokyo-born Japanese writer, composer, and film director. In his film and singing work he uses the name Jinsei Tsuji, an alternative reading of the Japanese writing of his name. He debuted as a writer in 1989. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as overseas, with his work being translated into 20 languages and selling over ten million copies.

Risa Wataya is a female Japanese novelist from Kyoto. Her short novel Keritai senaka won the Akutagawa Prize and has sold more than a million copies. Wataya has also won the Bungei Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize. Her work has been translated into German, Italian, French, Thai, Korean, and English.

Nao-Cola Yamazaki is the professional name of Naoko Yamazaki , a Japanese writer. They pride themselves on writing "things no one else can say in words anyone can understand". They have won the Bungei Prize and the Shimase Award for Love Stories. They have been nominated multiple times for the Akutagawa Prize, and their work has been adapted for film. Nao-Cola has chose not to make their gender public, and has stated that their pronoun is singular "they". They have two children.

Shōtarō Yasuoka was a Japanese writer.