Yoichi Funado is the reigning monarch of the contempory political thriller in Japan. No Japanese novelist is better acquainted with independence and resistance movements that are currently operant around the world. Funado has received various awards from the Japan Adventure Writing Association, Japan Mystery Writers Association, Naoki Award, and a Yoshikawa Eiji Prize and Yamamoto Shuguro Prize for suspense writing. He has translated Dashiell Hammett and has written original script for the popular manga series Golgo 13.