He lived in Hiratsuka from 1926 to 1932, and he was evacuated to Shizuoka Prefecture during World War II, but otherwise he spent most of his life in Tokyo.
Naka was one of the students taught by Natsume Sōseki at the University of Tokyo before Sōseki gave up teaching to write for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
It was Sōseki who arranged the serial publication in that paper of Naka's first novel Gin no saji ("The Silver Spoon"), a nostalgic depiction of his childhood and teens.
It is popular in Japan and is an account of life in Tokyo at the beginning of the 20th century during the Meiji era, replete with historical details as well as a contemporary sense of isolation; it follows Naka's psychological journey from childhood to adulthood.
[1] Naka also wrote Inu ("The Dog", 1922) and Rōkan (a collection of poems, 1935).