Keigo Higashino

Keigo Higashino was born on February 4, 1958, in the Ikuno ward of Osaka. The family name characters were once read as Tono; his father changed the reading to Higashino. He grew up in a working class district and attended Shoji Elementary School, Higashi Ikuno Junior High School and Osaka Prefectural Hannan High School, where he began reading mystery fiction.

He studied electrical engineering at Osaka Prefecture University and captained the archery club. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree. While still a student he showed manuscripts to friends and kept writing after he started work.

In 1981 Higashino joined Nippon Denso Co., later DENSO, as an engineer. He wrote in the evenings and on weekends and submitted novels for the Edogawa Rampo Prize. In 1985, at 27, he won that prize for Hokago (After School), drawing on his university archery experience. He resigned from DENSO in 1986 and moved to Tokyo as a full time novelist.

Himitsu (Secret), published in 1998 and later issued in English as Naoko, won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for its film adaptation in 1999. The Devotion of Suspect X (Yogisha X no Kenshin), published in 2005, won the 134th Naoki Prize and the sixth Honkaku Mystery Award in 2006 and ranked first in major Japanese mystery guide lists that year. Its English translation was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

He created two of modern Japanese crime fiction's best known series: the Galileo novels, with physicist detective Manabu Yukawa, and the Kyoichiro Kaga police novels, including Malice, Newcomer and The Final Curtain. Other widely read titles include Journey Under the Midnight Sun, Salvation of a Saint and The Miracles of the Namiya General Store. Nearly twenty of his books were adapted into films or television dramas in Japan and abroad.

Higashino was elected president of the Mystery Writers of Japan in 2009 and served until 2013. From 2014 he sat on the Naoki Prize selection committee. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami he donated royalties from a large reprint of The Wings of the Kirin to relief efforts.

Higashino married a high school teacher while working as an engineer; an early Rampo Prize submission drew on her occupation. He was known for avoiding publicity and preferred not to be recognised on the street. Public reporting on his family life beyond those early biographical notes was limited, and Kodansha asked the media to respect the family's privacy after his death.

Higashino died of colorectal cancer in the early hours of July 23, 2026. He was 68. Kodansha announced the death on July 27 in a statement titled Notice of the Passing of Keigo Higashino. The publisher said the funeral had already been held privately with family members, asked the press not to approach the family, and said the family would not accept condolence money, flowers or telegrams. A memorial gathering was to be announced later.

Japanese and international outlets including Asahi Shimbun, The Japan Times, Jiji Press and The Independent reported the news. Kodansha noted that his novel Eien no Kioku, part of the Galileo series, was scheduled for publication by Bungeishunju on August 5, 2026.

Higashino left one of the largest bodies of work in contemporary Japanese mystery fiction: more than a hundred books, tens of millions of readers at home and abroad, and screen adaptations that made characters such as Yukawa familiar far beyond print. Critics highlighted his inverted crime structures, in which the reader often knows the culprit early and follows the emotional and logical fallout, and his mixture of scientific detail with everyday human loyalties.

He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2023, the Kikuchi Kan Prize the same year and the Japan Mystery Literature Grand Prize in 2024. His publisher said the stories he created would continue to captivate readers.