Yasutaka Tsutsui, born in Osaka in 1934, is Japan's pre-eminent writer of metafiction. Over the last six decades, he has produced dozens of novels, hundreds of short stories and numerous other works of literature, many of which have won national acclaim. Among others, he won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987, the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. His latest and probably last full-length novel Monado no Ryōiki won the Mainichi Art Award in 2017. Though a cult hero and well-known TV personality, Tsutsui lives virtually incognito in Tokyo's bustling Harajuku district. Andrew Driver, born in Oxford in 1954, has been translating Japanese for nearly three decades. He is a former resident of Tokyo, where he kick-started the Hysterick Theatre project and featured in the radio drama Woody's Week in the 1990s. In 2005 he conceived, compiled and translated Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, the first English-language collection of Tsutsui short stories, followed by the novel Paprika. Youchan Ito was born 1968 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. She launched her career as a graphic designer in 1988, becoming a freelancer illustrator in 1991 and founding Togoru Co., Ltd. with her husband in 2000. She handles a wide range of genres including cover art and design for science fiction, mysteries and horror titles, as well as illustrations for children's books. http: //www.youchan.com