Famed Japanese Novelist Ryu Murakami Dies at 74

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--Renowned Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami, known for works such as "Almost Transparent Blue" and "Coin Locker Babies," died Saturday. He was 74.

Born in the city of Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in 1952, Murakami, whose real name was Ryunosuke Murakami, won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1976 for Almost Transparent Blue, his debut work, which he wrote while attending Musashino Art University.

Focuses on young people living in a Japanese city with a U.S. military base, the novel became a bestseller, selling about 3.5 million copies.

In 1981, Murakami received the Noma Literary Prize for New Writers for Coin Locker Babies, which addresses the abandonment of infants.

His writing explored a sense of stagnation and the fragility of modern society, and depicted the loneliness and anger of marginalized people.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]