Joh Sasaki


Joh Sasaki is a Japanese writer and journalist; chiefly known for his historical fiction and mystery novels.

Biography

Joh Sasaki was born in Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan. He spent his early youth in Nakashibetsu City and later ventured to Sapporo where Sasaki attended Tsukisamu High School. He released his first novel, Tekkihei, tonda, in 1979. Sasaki quickly established himself as a writer after winning the All Yomimono New Writers Prize for Tekkihei, tonda which was also later adapted for the big screen. Today Sasaki is known as a household author with numerous works in genres stretching from historical fiction, young adult fiction to police crime fiction, and even various TV Crime Drama adaptations.
In 2009, Sasaki won Japan's number one literary award, the Naoki Prize, for his work :ja:廃墟に乞う Haikyo ni kou, and also holds many other literary awards.
These days Sasaki is actively developing his stories for the stage in addition to directing a Children's e-picture book project called Joh's Picture Book Project.

Literary style

Joh Sasaki is well known in Japan as a social entertainment writer. In his novel :ja:真夜中の遠い彼方 Mayonaka no tooi kanata, he depicts the underground lifestyles of the Japanese mafia, boat people, and illegal alien workers. In :ja:夜にその名を呼べば Yoru ni sono na o yobeba, Sasaki portrays a chilling Cold War scene in a mystery set in Otaru, Hokkaido and Berlin, Germany. His police mystery thriller, :ja:歌う警官 Utau keikan was adapted for the big screen and provides an early setting for his later internationally acclaimed roman-fleuve novel :ja:警官の血 Keikan no chi which was eventually adapted for television. Sasaki's :ja:ベルリン飛行指令 Berlin hikō shimei garnered critical acclaim for telling a World War II story from the other side about a fly-by-night mission involving a Type Zero Fighter secretly making its way from Japan all the way to Berlin at the request of the Luftwaffe. Zero Over Berlin is presently Sasaki's only novel translated into English.

Works in English translation

World War II

Police crime fiction