Keigo Higashino: A Life in Mystery

Early life and engineering career

Keigo Higashino was born in Osaka on February 4, 1958. He studied electrical engineering at Osaka Prefecture University, now part of Osaka Metropolitan University, and graduated in 1981. He then joined Nippondenso, the company now known as Denso, as an engineer.

Higashino began writing fiction while still employed. His technical education later became especially visible in the Galileo series, whose crimes and solutions often turn on physics, engineering, or scientific reasoning.

Debut and full-time writing

In 1985, After School (放課後, Hōkago) won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, one of Japan's major awards for unpublished mystery fiction. The win launched his publishing career. Higashino left Nippondenso in 1986 and moved to Tokyo to write full time.

That same year he published Graduation, the first novel to feature detective Kyoichiro Kaga. The Kaga series would eventually develop into ten books, including Malice, Newcomer,A Death in Tokyo, and The Final Curtain.

Breakthrough novels

The Secret (1998), published in English asNaoko, won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and became an important early success. Journey Under the Midnight Sun followed in book form in 1999, tracing the consequences of a crime across many years. Both works demonstrated that Higashino's interests extended beyond the solution of a puzzle to grief, identity, family, and the lasting moral cost of secrecy.

The physicist Manabu Yukawa first appeared in a short story in 1996, and the first Galileo collection was published in 1998. The series reached a much wider audience with The Devotion of Suspect X in 2005. That novel won both the Naoki Prize and the Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize in 2006. Its English translation was later nominated for the Edgar Award.

Range, readership, and adaptations

Higashino moved easily between detective series, psychological suspense, family drama, and speculative premises. The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2012), a story built around letters that cross time, became one of his best-known works outside conventional crime fiction.

His novels inspired television series and films in Japan, China, South Korea, and elsewhere. By 2023, domestic circulation of his books had passed 100 million copies, and his work had been published in dozens of countries and regions. Our film and television guide introduces notable screen versions from across Asia.

Leadership and major honors

Higashino served as president of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 2009 to 2013. Among his major honors were the Chuo Koron Literary Prize forThe Miracles of the Namiya General Store, the Shibata Renzaburo Prize for Dream Flower, and the Eiji Yoshikawa Prize for Literature for The Final Curtain.

He received the Noma Publishing Culture Prize in 2019, the Kikuchi Kan Prize and Japan's Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2023, and the Japan Mystery Literature Award in 2024.

Final years and 106th book

Higashino continued publishing into 2026. He died from colorectal cancer on July 23, 2026, aged 68. His death was announced by Kodansha on July 27; a private family funeral had already taken place. Read theverified obituary and publisher announcement.

永遠の記憶 (Eien no Kioku, referred to here by the unofficial English rendering Eternal Memory) was published by Bungeishunju on August 5, 2026. The publisher identifies it as his 106th book, excluding co-authored works. See theEternal Memory release date and English edition status.

Selected timeline

1. 1958Born in Osaka on February 4.
2. 1981Graduates in electrical engineering and joins Nippondenso.
3. 1985Wins the Edogawa Rampo Prize for After School.
4. 1986Leaves engineering; publishes the first Kaga novel, Graduation.
5. 1998Publishes The Secret and the first Galileo collection.
6. 1999Journey Under the Midnight Sun appears in book form.
7. 2006Wins the Naoki Prize for The Devotion of Suspect X.
8. 2009–13Serves as president of the Mystery Writers of Japan.
9. 2023Domestic circulation passes 100 million; receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon.
10. 2026Dies on July 23; 106th book published on August 5.