Yuya Sato (novelist)
Yuya Sato (born 1980) is a Japanese novelist from Hokkaido. He writes fiction, including crime, thrillers, and science fiction. He won the Mephisto Prize in 2001 for Flicker Style and the Mishima Prize in 2007 for 1000 Novels and Backbeard.
His work has been translated into English, Chinese, and Korean. His short story “Same As Always” was included in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (2018) and is described as a sharp look at how gender and caregiving interact in post-Fukushima Japan. He cites influences from Kenzaburō Ōe, Kenji Nakagami, and J. D. Salinger. “Same As Always” is a stand-alone short story and also the first chapter of his novel Gray-Colored Diet Coke; the title nods to Nakagami's Gray-Colored Coke.
Some of Sato’s books are not full novels but collections of linked short stories.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:30 (CET).