Jirō Asada

Jirō Asada (浅田 次郎, Asada Jirō, born December 13, 1951 in Tokyo) is the pen name of Kōjirō Iwato (岩戸 康次郎, Iwato Kōjirō), a Japanese writer.

Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'état among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the SDF after finishing his studies. He changed jobs many times while endeavoring to find writing opportunities, submitting his works to literary competitions. In 1991, his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!) started his literary career. After writing several picaresque novels, his novel Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) was awarded the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for New Writers and made into a 2006 film; a short story collection The Stationmaster and other stories (Poppoya (鉄道員)) was also awarded the Naoki Prize. He writes not only standard fiction and picaresque novels, but also writes historical and Chinese historical novels such as The Firmament of the Pleiades (Sōkyū no subaru, 蒼穹の昴). He is seen as an author that has continued the traditional style of Japanese popular fiction.

Asada was born in Tokyo on 13 December 1951. One of his ancestors was a samurai that belonged to the Tokugawa shogunate. After graduating from Suginami high school attached to Chuo university, he enlisted in the Japan Self-Defense Forces because of Mishima although he initially denied this.
His novels often depict Yakuza and it has been said that in this respect, they are autobiographical - Asada has admitted that he was once connected to a gang, specifically someone who ran businesses to raise funds for organised crime. Asada was connected to a "Nezumi kou" (a pyramid scheme fraud). However, Asada has denied ever having been actual member of a gangster organization. There was a period when he was living on money earned from gambling, and thus he has written many essays related to horse racing.

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