Overview
- Murakami’s office confirmed on Friday that he died on Saturday, October 17, at age 74 and that a private funeral for close family was held.
- He first rose to fame with 1976’s Limitless Blue, which won the Gunzo newcomer prize and the Akutagawa Prize and sold more than 3.5 million copies in paperback editions.
- Over five decades he published major works including Coin Locker Babies, Love and Fantasies of Fascism, Peninsula Exit and Singing Whale, with several winning top literary prizes such as the Noma and Mainichi awards.
- Murakami served on the Akutagawa Prize selection committee from 2000 to 2018 and maintained a high public profile through his long run on TV Tokyo’s talk show Cambria Kyuden and through work as a film director and screenwriter.
- News coverage so far focuses on his literary legacy and public roles rather than the cause of death, and his passing is likely to prompt renewed attention to his portrayals of war, violence and social dislocation in modern Japan.