[citation needed] Following the trend of Social School of crime fiction led by Seicho Matsumoto, he was the pioneer of "Shin-Honkaku" (New Orthodox) logic mystery genre.

[3] He bred authors such as Yukito Ayatsuji, Rintaro Norizuki and Shogo Utano, and he led the mystery boom from the late 1980s to present day.

In recent years, he has begun a new challenge—an animated series called the "Taiga Novels," collaborated with the renowned illustrator Masamune Shirow.

[8] Shimada has been nominated for numerous literature awards, but gained a growing reputation in his early career for consistently losing out.

He was nominated for the Mystery Writers of Japan Award eight times in eight consecutive years, but this was declined by himself before the selection process.