While you are well known in Japan for your books—among them Out, Dark, Gyokyuran to name a few. You have won the Edogawa Ranpo prize in 1993 (Kao ni furikakaru ame) the Naoki Prize in 1999 (Yawarakana Hoho). But you are not as well known outside Japan. Out is your first book to be translated into English (although there have been some French and German translations). How would you describe yourself and your writing? What motivates you to write?
I am the type of person who always wants to be straightforward in dealing with my emotions, and my way of life, and my will. Because I am a complicated person, I can't otherwise work or live on a day-to-day basis in any sort of healthy manner.　

As for describing my writing, do you mean the methodology behind writing my novels?

If that’s the case, it depends on the theme, and whether or not it takes the form something read in one go or serialized. If it serialized, it’s different if it’s a daily, weekly, or monthly publication. If it’s to be read in one go, you can really dig down into your themes with out much thought to the passing of time. When you serialize, you can enjoy the ever-expanding branches of a story. While I do discover things about myself by writing serials, I prefer to drown in a sea of information I have gathered, and then wrap up my ideas in my head and write in blocks.

Or, are you asking what genre my writing fits into? For example, I think that I’m a sort of “deviant” that really doesn’t fit into an easy category. My debut as an “author” was as mystery writer, but in reality, I really don’t like mysteries that much.

My main motivation to write is to “observe the fabric of human relationships.” Sometimes the threads that connect people are strong, or warped, or weak, or twisted by the encounters. Isn’t that what a story telling is really all about?  

Many of your books focus on crime and women. Why crime? What intrigues you about crime? What does crime and criminals say about the human condition? What does crime and criminals say about the female human condition?
My work is not always about crime-- I often read things like the page three stories of the newspaper [which often feature local crime stories], and I feel like I am getting a fleeting glimpse into a person’s life. From there I wonder what happened, and often my imagination begins to expand from there.

It’s a real mystery of human nature what will connect a person with no ties to crime a person related to crime. If law imposes order on our emotions, it’s the job of a novel to pick up all those nuances that fall through the system.

I don’t think I exclusively tell stories of women criminals. However, being a woman in this society is mainly an anonymous existence. I don’t think the fact that the environment is such that women are nameless and overlooked is a good thing. For example, a young man once told me that until he read Out, he “never realized that regular middle aged women actually had a life.” What makes these women special is not that they committed a crime, but the circumstances around these normal women that cornered them into that situation. It’s often merely convenient to depict them as seeking an escape from their life through an act of crime.

Many of your books feature women and the problems they face—whether Kuniko in Out stuck in rising consumer debt, or Yuko in Gyokuran running away from Japan. Why do you write about women? Do you feel that the problems women face in Japan are changing? Or are women’s reactions changing? 
I feel that this society takes advantage of powerless women. You could say that if you are not paying attention, something will take advantage of you. The situation is as such that it’s dangerous for women unless they get smart and stand up for themselves. Because it has always been this way in Japan since they were children, young people today are particularly sensitive.

So much for Kuniko. In terms of Yuko’s escape from Japan, it’s because I thought about the trend of career minded Japanese women working overseas, and I imagined what happened to them after they moved.

Surely, at the root of this is the hardship of making your way through life in Japan. Every now and then I can strongly feel the sense of impatience and powerlessness that women in their 20s and 30s face.  

What do you think are the main themes of Out? Do you feel that the themes are universal? Or do you think that Japanese and western readers will react differently to your book?
I’m not sure what the response of western readers will be, but I think that the problems are universal to women. The title Out has many meanings attached to it—“out” as in “off the path” or “exit”, out as in “no good”, and out as in “outside”. Moreover, I proposed the idea that there is a certain kind of freedom in being completely “out”. If you go out one exit, there’s another door, and if you open that, you don’t know what awaits you. . .

One strong theme in Out is that the bonds that exist in society, whether between families, friends, or coworkers have irreparably broken down. It’s almost Existential—are you saying that in the end we really alone? Is there such thing as society or community? Or is it all an illusion. . . 
I think the existence of the idea of “society” is only an illusion that exists inside the heart. However, that often becomes a reality, not illusion when you commit an anti-social act. I would say people unconsciously reveal their true violent nature. I feel that humans are solitary creatures. What saves us from this solitude is not this vague notion of “the public” but the human connections and ties I mentioned above in the first question.

Out won the Grand Prix of the Japan Mystery Writers Association, was a best seller, and recently was made into a movie. Why do you feel there such a strong response to Out? Were you surprised with its reception?
I didn’t think the novel would sell because the content was so violent and shocking. Around the time of publication, when I was invited to a radio show to talk about the book, the male host didn't want to talk with me because he was upset about the idea of a wife killing one's own husband. When I went to give a lecture, women would complain that murder and dismemberment was too cruel. Readers occasionally identify the author (who has all these radical ideas) with the main characters of the novel. I was troubled by things like that. 

Why do you think that crime and mystery appeal to people? Is it a vicarious thing? 
There is a demand for a vicarious experience and the need to see something frightening, which is similar to the interest in tabloid TV. This is not a bad thing. If, from there, the seed of imagination takes root, then that’s fine. 

It’s often said that novelists write from their personal experience. Unless of course your book is about dismembering a body and leaving bits in trash cans all over Tokyo. Where does it all come from? How much research do you do for your books? How do you go about doing it? Do you scout locations and talk to pathologists, criminals, and cops? The characters you write about seem true to life—are they based on people you know? Is there a real Masako or a real Satake? 
It’s quite simple: it all starts with an idea. In the case of Out, it started when I wondered what would happen if housewife went up against Kabukicho Mafia [Yakuza]. Then I added lurid details of a dismemberment murder incident. After that, I added Satake, man with his own special brand of misery. While I was writing it, it just grew and

I research my books for about half a year. I did visit a pathology autopsy class at a university but I couldn't see a real corpse. I just interviewed a pathologist and took some notes of the detail of their operations, such as the need to wear goggles while dismembering a body due the flying shards of fine bone. In terms of that dismemberment scene, I actually was thinking about cooking while I was writing. When I later heard a doctor say that the description of my novel wasn't far off from the way they do it, I was quite relieved.

But in terms of a real person as a model, no such a person exists. It doesn’t do to depict real people in a novel. That’s because a character in a novel is always slightly different from the real person, and you have to create a different sort of appeal in the character for the story to work. I think this is different from movies and TV.

Japan, at least in the west, has been portrayed in the West as a safe country—one where a dropped wallet is returned to the koban. Is Japan safe country in your view—or is it changing? Or has it always been a backdrop to crime?
TTo be sure, I think that such thing as good will among people does exist. Thus lost objects are returned, and you leave the door open, things don’t get stolen. But that’s because people believe in the notion of “pubic mindedness”. Either that, their conscience wants them to feel good about themselves.

However, with the new internet-based society, it’s all changing. It’s not so bad as “anything goes so long as you don’t get caught”, but I do think that that it’s becoming a society in which you can’t let down your guard. The reason that Japan is not so bad is that it is based on the illusion of community, in other words, rules of a village-like society. Being a woman is easier because they are free from those social mores.

Tokyo is a bleak and joyless place in your books. Is Japan doomed? Or is it a condemnation of suburban life in general? Is there such thing as redemption in this day and age? 
I don’t this the situation is cause for despair. Rather, the suburbs are interesting in that human desires are transparent and in the forefront. In case of the suburb where Out was set, the small houses all in row are a product of what people desire. It can be seen as quite typically Japanese. I don’t think there is such thing as “society”. There is that much more freedom in that looseness.

In terms of redemption, the question is, redemption from what? I’m not quite sure what you are referring to, but if you return to the former question, the Japanese rarely recognize the sense of redemption because they lack the concept of the "society." That’s to say, one doesn’t know how to be redeemed, and what you have to do to accept it, and how and who should accept it. 

What influences your work Japanese literature, western literature—or do you read other mystery writers? Are there any books of this genre you feel strongly about? Or are your influenced by other mediums—TV, movies, music, and news events? What current Japanese writers do you like?
When I was a child, I read magazines indiscriminately and I read a lot of foreign juvenile and children’s fiction—mostly books like Adrift in the Pacific, The Three Musketeers, and Little Women. I think that that they may have influenced the way I tell stories.

I don’t really like mysteries so I don’t read many of them of late. I quite like Patricia Highsmith, among others. As for Japanese authors, I would say Ryu Murakami and Fumiko Hayashi. I also read non-fiction. I love movies, especially Scorsese and Lynch. As for music, I am a fan of seventies soul.

What do you think is required reading in Japanese fiction and literature?
I think Fumiko Hayashi’s novels truly embody a sense of freedom of spirit and the joy of living. 

What are your vices?
II have an unlimited of vices—laziness, wastefulness, being too emotional. I mean to fix these things, but I have feeling that my novels would then die, so I leave them be. . .[smiles]

What brings you joy? 
I enjoy reading, seeing, and tasting the creative work of other people. Also, I enjoy the time I spend grappling with the ideas of whatever novel I am going to write next.

Right now I am tackling a book that isn’t serialized, which is something I haven’t done in a while. The title is Rakudo, which comes from the slogan “Odorakudo” [trans: Paradise, also WWII Japanese slogan for occupied Manchuria] and the book takes place in Manchuko. I just finished my research trip, and I’m in the process of struggling with all my materials.

What are you reading right now? What do you enjoy reading? 
All I seem reading these days are things related to work. In terms of reading for pleasure, it would have to be Sei Ito type novels that feature senior citizens. . .it’s probably because I have an ambition to be a wilder and bolder person when I get older.