Akutagawa Prize-winning author Mitsuru Arai, who is known for composing "Sen no Kaze ni Natte", died at a hospital in Hakodate, Hokkaido on the 3rd due to aspiration pneumonia.
I was 75 years old.
Mitsuru Arai is from Niigata City, and after graduating from university, he worked at an advertising agency while working on writing activities, and in 1988 he won the Akutagawa Prize for "Questioner's Time."
The tenor singer Masafumi Akikawa sang "Sen no Kaze ni Naru", which was a translation of an English poem whose author is unknown, and was widely popular.
In addition, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, he wrote poems based on the "miracle pine tree" that remained undisturbed by the tsunami, held a reading session, and worked on PR songs and school songs in various places. , I have continued various activities.
According to his family, Mr. Arai died of aspiration pneumonia at a hospital in Hakodate, Hokkaido on the 3rd.
I was 75 years old.