Akira Yoshimura

was a Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels Shipwrecks and On Parole.

Life and work Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN member. He published over 20 novels, of which On Parole and Shipwrecks are internationally known and have been translated into several languages. In 1984 he received the Yomiuri Prize for his novel Hagoku (, On Parole) based on the true story of Yoshie Shiratori.

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yoshimura's nonfiction chronicle of three previous tsunamis on the coast of Sanriku, Sanriku Kaigan Otsunami received an influx of orders, requiring a reprint of 150,000 copies. Yoshimura's wife and author in her own right, Setsuko Tsumura donated the royalties from the book to the village of Tanohata, which was heavily impacted by the tsunami. Tanohata was a favorite place of Yoshimura's to visit and inspired him to begin research on the historical tsunamis of the area.

In 2024, Mitaka City acquired and relocated Yoshimura's former study to establish the Mitaka City Yoshimura Akira Writing Room, a public museum space dedicated to his life and work.

Books (selection) 1966 Senkan Musashi English edition: Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the Worlds Biggest Battleship (Kodansha USA, 1999) 1967 Mizu no sōretsu 1970 Umi no kabe sanriku kaigan ōtsunami 1978 Tōi hi no sensō English edition: One Man’s Justice (Canongate, 2004), 1979 Pōtsumasu no hata (on the 1905 Japan-Russia Treaty of Portsmouth negotiation) French edition: Les Drapeaux de Portsmouth (Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1990) 1982 Hasen English edition: Shipwrecks (, Hasen) (Harvest Books, 1996), 1983 Hagoku 1988 Karishakuhō English edition: On Parole (Harvest Books, 2000), , loosely adapted into a movie as The Eel 1989 Yami ni hirameku 1998 Namamugi jiken 1999 Amerika Hikozō (on Joseph Heco) English edition: Storm Rider (Harcourt, 2004) 2010 Shiroi michi, , Iwanami Shoten, 2010, (biographical essays, 208 pages)

Awards and honors 1966: Dazai Osamu Prize 1973: Kikuchi Kan Prize 1985: 36th Yomiuri Prize 1997: Japan Art Academy member 2006: Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class