Interview: Masatsugu Ono, winner of Japan's top prize for emerging novelists

In January, Masatsugu Ono won the152nd Akutagawa Prize for his short story 9 Nen Mae no Inori (A Prayer Nine Years Ago). Founded in 1935 and regarded as the most prestigious award in Japanese literature for up-and-coming novelists, the Akutagawa Prize counts Kenzaburo Oe, Ryu Murakami and Shintaro Ishihara among its winners. Ono's book tells of a Japanese woman who, after living in Tokyo and overseas for many years, faces challenges trying to raise her son as a single mother in a Japanese village. Born in Oita prefecture in 1970, Ono studied at the University of Tokyo and earned a PhD from the University of Paris VIII. He is now an associate professor of literature at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, focusing on literary criticism and modern Francophone literature. He talks to

Yes, very. This was the fourth time that one of my stories had been shortlisted, and I had not won previously, so I was half hoping but also half resigned to not winning. But the impact of winning the prize has been huge. When I went back to Oita recently I met the governor and he gave me an honorary award. The people in my hometown were very proud, as well, and I think that might be because the story is set there and it represents their lives in many ways.

Winning the Akutagawa is going to make it easier for me to continue writing, without a doubt, and many publishers are now interested in my work. But it is still difficult to make a living by the pen. The Naoki Prize is for popular literature, and winners of that can make a living from writing, but the Akutagawa is different. But I have always enjoyed conducting research, and I love teaching, so I will continue with those, as well.