Novelists Shinya Tanaka and To Enjo are sharing the semiannual Akutagawa Award, while the Naoki Prize for popular literature has gone to Rin Hamuro for his "Higurashi no Ki" ("Chronicle of Cicada"), the selection committees for the two prestigious awards for Japanese literature said.
Tanaka, a 39-year-old novelist born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, has won numerous accolades, including the Yukio Mishima Prize for "Tomogui" ("Cannibalism"), a depiction of sex and violence in a remote community.
Previously nominated four times for the Akutagawa, Tanaka joked at a news conference Tuesday in Tokyo that the prize rightly belonged to him.