The , named after

Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the le ...

, is a Japanese literary award which has been presented every year by the

Mystery Writers of Japan is an organization for mystery writers in Japan. The organization was founded on 21 June 1947 by Edogawa Rampo. It is currently chaired by Bin Konno and claims about 600 members. It presents the Mystery Writers of Japan Award to writers every yea ...

since 1955.Fukue, Nastuko,
Literary awards run spectrum
, ''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', 14 February 2012, p. 3. Though its name is similar to the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which has been presented by

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

, the Edogawa Rampo Prize is not a counterpart of the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

s. The Japanese counterparts of the Edgar awards are the Mystery Writers of Japan Awards, which honor the best in

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

and critical/biographical work published in the previous year. The Edogawa Rampo Prize is an award for unpublished mystery novels. It is sponsored by

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

and

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

. Not only is the novel of the winner, which is selected from more than 300 entries, published by Kodansha, but the winner also receives a prize of 10,000,000

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

. The members of the 2014 selection committee are

Natsuo Kirino (born October 7, 1951, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture) is the pen name of Mariko Hashioka, a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction. Biography Kirino is the middle child of th ...

Natsuhiko Kyogoku is a Japanese mystery writer, who is a member of Ōsawa Office. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan and the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. Three of his novels have been turned into feature films; ''Mōryō no Hako'', which w ...

Ira Ishida is a Japanese novelist and TV commentator. After graduating from Seikei University, he worked for a number of different advertising production companies and as a freelance copywriter. In 1997, he published his first short story collection, '' ...

Alice Arisugawa , mainly known by his pseudonym , is a Japanese mystery writer. He is one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing and was the first president of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan from 20 ...

( ja) and Bin Konno ( ja), who is the current president of the Mystery Writers of Japan.

Winners

The first and second Edogawa Rampo Prize is not the crime novel award, but an award given to persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the genre.

Finalists available in English

Not a few finalists were published in Japan. * 18 (1972) - Misa Yamamura ( ja), * 26 (1980) - Soji Shimada,

References

* Suekuni, Yoshimi (2000), "Edogawa Ranpo Shō". ''Nihon Misuteri Jiten''(日本ミステリー事典),

Shinchosha is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in Yaraichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

External links

Mystery Writers of Japan official English website

{{Japanese literary awards 1955 establishments in Japan Mystery and detective fiction awards Japanese literary awards Awards established in 1955

Winners

Finalists available in English

See also

References

External links