Edogawa Rampo Prize

The Edogawa Rampo Prize (江戸川乱歩賞, Edogawa Ranpo Shō), named after Edogawa Rampo, is a Japanese literary award which has been presented every year by the Mystery Writers of Japan since 1955.

Though its name is similar to the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which has been presented by Mystery Writers of America, the Edogawa Rampo Prize is not a counterpart of the Edgar Awards. The Japanese counterparts of the Edgar awards are the Mystery Writers of Japan Awards, which honor the best in crime fiction and critical/biographical work published in the previous year.

The Edogawa Rampo Prize is an award for unpublished mystery novels. It is sponsored by Kodansha and Fuji Television. Not only is the novel of the winner, which is selected from more than 300 entries, published by Kodansha, but the winner also receives a prize of 10,000,000 yen.

The members of the 2014 selection committee are Natsuo Kirino, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Ira Ishida, Alice Arisugawa (ja) and Bin Konno (ja), who is the current president of the Mystery Writers of Japan.

Winners

The first and second Edogawa Rampo Prize is not the crime novel award, but an award given to persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the genre.

Finalists available in English

Not a few finalists were published in Japan.

• 18 (1972) - Misa Yamamura (ja), The Dark Ring of Murder (黒の環状線, Kuro no Kanjosen)
• 26 (1980) - Soji Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (占星術殺人事件, Sensei-jutsu Satsujin Jiken)

See also

• Japanese detective fiction
• Mystery Writers of Japan
• Edogawa Rampo

Japanese mystery awards for unpublished novels

• Ayukawa Tetsuya Award
• Mephisto Prize
• Agatha Christie Award

Japanese mystery awards for best works published in the previous year

• Mystery Writers of Japan Award
• Honkaku Mystery Award

References

• Suekuni, Yoshimi (2000), "Edogawa Ranpo Shō". Nihon Misuteri Jiten(日本ミステリー事典), Shinchosha, Tokyo

External links

• Mystery Writers of Japan official English website
• List of Edogawa Rampo Prize winners(in Japanese)
• Fumio Takano Official Website(in English)