He won the Kuniko Mukōda Prize in 1998 for his screenplays Nemureru Mori (A Sleeping Forest) and Kekkon Zen'ya (The Night before the Wedding).
The South Korean TV Network SBS broadcast a 16-episode drama Alone in Love adapted from one of his novels in 2006.
He also wrote Detective Conan - The Phantom of Baker Street.
He was found dead in his office in Tokyo's Meguro ward, after he had apparently hanged himself several days earlier.
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