Ryu Murakami (1952-) is a commercial and prolific novelist and movie director from Nagasaki. When he was a student at the Musashino Art University, he debuted with Kagirinaku tomei ni chikai buru(Almost Transparent Blue). In this novel, he described the drug and sex abusing youth in the military base town of Fussa. The book was awarded the Akutagawa Prize and went on to become a bestseller. Since then, he has been publishing books that detail the social climate.

1976 Gunzo Prize for New Writers and Akutagawa Prize, for Kagirinaku tomei ni chikai buru(Almost Transparent Blue)

1980 Noma Literary Prize for New Writers, for Koin rokka beibizu (Coin Locker Babies)

1998 Yomiuri Prize for Literature, for Inza misosupu(In the Miso Soup)

2005 Noma Literary Prize and Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize, for Hanto wo deyo (Leave the Peninsula)