was a prize winning Japanese writer.

He was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

 member. He published over 20 novels, of which On Parole and Shipwrecks are internationally known and have been translated into several languages. In 1984 he received the Yomiuri Prize

Yomiuri Prize

The is a prestigious literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1948 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "cultural nation". The winner is awarded one million Japanese yen and an inkstone.-Award categories:...

 for his novel Hagoku based on the true story of Yoshie Shiratori

Yoshie Shiratori

was a Japanese murderer, who committed a murder in 1933. He is best known for having escaped from prison four times over three years. He was eventually sentenced to life and 23 years imprisonment for a murder, escaping and manslaughter. However, in fact he had been in prison for 26 years until he...

.

Books

• Hagoku
• Yami ni hirameku , made into a movie as The Eel
• Shipwrecks . Harvest Books 1996, ISBN 0-15-600835-1
• On Parole
  On Parole (novel)
  On Parole is the title of a novel by Japanese author Akira Yoshimura. The book tells the story of Shiro Kikutani, a man who is serving an indefinite prison sentence for the murder of his unfaithful wife...
  
  Harvest Books 2000, ISBN 978-0-15-601147-1
• One Man’s Justice. Cannongate 2004, ISBN 978-1-84195-479-0
• Higuma arashi (『羆嵐』 1982)(shinchosha
  Shinchosha
  is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in Yaraichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award.-Monthly:* ENGINE* Foresight* nicola*Shinchō-External links:*...
  
  )