The Akutagawa Prize (芥川龍之介賞, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Shō) is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes.^[1][2]

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Quick Facts Awarded for, Date ...

Akutagawa Prize
芥川龍之介賞 (Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Shō)
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Awarded for	Best published literary story by a rising author
Date	August 10, 1935 (1935-08-10)
Country	Japan
Presented by	Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature
Reward(s)	¥1,000,000, pocket watch
First awarded	1935; 89 years ago (1935)
Website	www.bunshun.co.jp/shinkoukai/award/akutagawa/

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The Akutagawa Prize was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then-editor of Bungeishunjū magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.^[2] It is sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, and is awarded in January and July to the best serious literary story published in a newspaper or magazine by a new or rising author.^[1] The winner receives a pocket watch and a cash award of 1 million yen. The judges usually include contemporary writers, literary critics, and former winners of the prize. Occasionally, when consensus cannot be reached between judges over disputes about the winning story or the quality of work for that half year, no prize is awarded. From 1945 through 1948 no prizes were awarded due to postwar instability.^[3] The prize has frequently been split between two authors.^[4]

On January 15, 2004, the awarding of the 130th Akutagawa Prize made significant news when two women became the award's youngest winners.^[5] The prize went to both Risa Wataya, 19, for her novel I Want to Kick You in the Back (蹴りたい背中, Keritai Senaka) and to Hitomi Kanehara, 20, for her debut novel Snakes and Earrings (蛇にピアス, Hebi ni Piasu). Previously the youngest Akutagawa winners were all males over 23 years old, among them the former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and novelist Kenzaburō Ōe.^[6] In 2013 Natsuko Kuroda won the 148th Akutagawa Prize at age 75, making her the oldest recipient in the history of the prize.^[7]

Bungeishunjū maintains an official archive of current and past winners on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature.^[11]

• Amy Yamada, 2003
• Hiromi Kawakami, 2007
• Yōko Ogawa, 2007
• Masahiko Shimada, 2010
• Toshiyuki Horie, 2012
• Hikaru Okuizumi, 2012
• Shuichi Yoshida, 2016
• Hisaki Matsuura, 2019
• Keiichiro Hirano, 2020^[32]

• List of Japanese literary awards