Koki Mitani is far and away the nation's best-known dramatist. Although theater is quite a niche medium here, most people in Japan — whether male or female, young or not so young, Japanese or not — recognize his face, even if they couldn't name many of his works. Recently, indeed, I was amazed when a young child sitting next to me in a theater was thrilled to identify Mitani, who was pictured on one of a bunch of handouts disguised as the great Russian playwright and author Anton P. Chekhov.

Mitani's celebrity status is also clear to see in the Japanese-language Wikipedia, where his entry is probably the longest of any native artist — currently spanning 19 pages.

Some might say that's just because he's busy in many fields — theater, movies, television dramas and guest appearances — as well as writing a weekly essay column for the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper.