Ai Ota

Novelist, Scriptwriter

■Born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan.

■First got involved in theater at university. Scriptwriting debut came in 1997 with the TV series “Ultraman Tiga.” Has worked on scenarios in a variety of genres, earning great acclaim for work on police and suspense dramas like  “Trick” and “Aibo:Tokyo Detective Duo”.

■Debuted as a novelist in 2012 with “Hanzaisha：Criminal”. Published “Genka：Phantasmal Summer" in 2013. Nominated for Mystery Writers of Japan Awards.

■Published "Tenjo no Ashi：A reed in Heaven" in 2017. In addition to its high entertainment value, this book became a major topic of discussion due to its prescient nature. This novel describes the danger of the news media pandering to those in the halls of state power and not reporting on government mistakes and policy flaws, thus creating a situation in which state power controls the media. And in fact, three months after the book's publication, a bureaucrat was involved in an incident exactly like the one described in the story, which made headlines and caused quite a stir. 

■ Prize winner at the 4th Yamanaka Award for "They Stand Apart in the World," which published in 2020.(all four works above are published by KADOKAWA)