Tanaka Yasuo is an author, literary critic, and politician from Tokyo. After two failed entrance exams for Tokyo University, he ended up attending Hitotsubashi University instead. While a student there, he published Nantonaku, kurisutaru (Somewhat Like Crystal, 1980), a postmodern novel that won him the Bungei Prize. None of his subsequent novels have been as popular, but he continues to write essays, criticism, and nikki bungaku (literature written in diary form). As a politician, Tanaka was elected governor of Nagano Prefecture and served from 2000 to 2006. He has also served in both branches of Japan’s Diet and as an executive of a political party.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.