He is the son of Japanese author and Nobel Prize laureate Kenzaburō Ōe and Yukari Ikeuchi, and the nephew of director Juzo Itami.

Even after an operation, Ōe remained visually impaired, developmentally delayed, epileptic and with limited physical coordination.

[2] In 1994, Kenzaburō won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in part because of his 1964 book, A Personal Matter, in which the writer describes his pain in accepting the brain-damaged child into his life, and of how he arrived at his resolve to live with his son.

[5] Hikari figures prominently in many of the books singled out for praise by the Nobel committee: Hikari's life is the core of the first book published after Kenzaburō was awarded the Nobel Prize.

This 1996 book, A Healing Family, celebrates the small victories in Hikari's life.