Japanese Author Was 74
Deadline • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Japanese writer and filmmaker Ryu Murakami died at age 74 on October 17, 2026, as announced by his publisher Gentosha, with a private family funeral held and no public condolences accepted.
- Born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1952, Murakami debuted in 1976 with Almost Transparent Blue, which won major literary awards and sold over 3.5 million copies.
- He received multiple accolades including the Noma Literary Newcomer’s Award for Coin Locker Babies and the Yomiuri Literary Prize for In the Miso Soup.
- Murakami also adapted several of his works into films, such as Tokyo Decadence and Kyoko, and authored the alternate history novel A World Five Minutes Later.
- Beyond writing, he was the primary interviewer on the TV Tokyo economic talk show Cambrian Palace.
