Katja Busson was born in Herford in 1970. She studied Japanology at Trier University in Germany, and at Waseda University and Hitotsubashi University, both in Tokyo. She received a PhD in Japanese literature from Trier University in 2002.

She has translated bestselling mysteries such as Shinjuku Shark by Arimasa Osawa, and Lakeside by Keigo Higashino, for which she received the Japan Foundation's Prize for translation in German.