Kōshū Tani


Kōshū Tani is an award-winning Japanese science fiction writer. He graduated from the Osaka Institute of Technology, and worked as a volunteer in Nepal and the Philippines. He made his professional debut with the story 137th Mobile Brigade in 1979 while still in Nepal.
He is known mostly for his hard science fiction works, for which he won the Seiun Award three times, and the Nitta Jirō Culture Award once.
He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan, the Space Authors Club, and an associate member of the Hard SF Laboratory. Tani currently lives in Komatsu in Ishikawa Prefecture.

History

Tani studied at the Osaka Institute of Technology, graduating from the engineering department with a degree in civil engineering. After graduating, he helped coordinate construction work by the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in Nepal, and also worked with the Japan International Cooperation Agency in the Philippines.
His debut work, 137th Mobile Brigade, was published in the March 1979 issue of Kisō Tengai magazine, for which he won an honorable mention in the 2nd Kisō Tengai SF Rookie of the Year Awards in 1980. He published Planet CB-8 Wintering Party, beginning his close association with hard science fiction adventure novels. From that point, he also began to publish many stories of what he styled as "future history", including his novel Space Force History.
In 1987, Tani's Martian Railroad 19 won the Seiun Award for "Best Japanese Short Story of the Year". He won the Seiun Award for "Best Japanese Novel of the Year" in 1994 for Endless Search for the Enemy.
His story White-peaked Man was awarded the Nitta Jirō Culture Award in 1996. He won "Best Japanese Novel of the Year" again in 2007 for ''Japan Sinks, which he coauthored with Sakyo Komatsu.

Works in English translation