After graduating from university, he worked as a manager at a women's clothing store before making his official debut in March 2003 with the novel Dengeki!!
Just as his savings were running out and he felt that he was "doomed", he was contacted by the editorial department of Dengeki Bunko, informing him that his novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya had just won the grand prize of the annual Sneaker Awards.
Tanigawa says that his desire to become a writer was triggered by reading various novels from his childhood, and that he gradually developed a "circuit in his mind that he wanted to write."
[9] Tanigawa has said that his work is influenced by the science fiction and young adult novels he read during junior high school.
In particular, he cites Hideyuki Kikuchi, Baku Yumemakura, Ellery Queen, S. S. Van Dine, and Isaac Asimov as major influences.