A former professor of French literature with an interest in human psychology and complex relationships, Hanawa's narratives expose the pressures and challenges of life in Japan. Hanawa is a master of the short story. He has written several hundred since he published his first collection, Garasu no natsu (Glass Summer) to critical acclaim in 1972. In 1962, after graduating from Tokyo University, where he studied French Literature, he spent several months in Paris, his only stay in the country to whose literature he has dedicated much of his life researching. Since retiring from academic life (having translated into Japanese 15 novels by some of France's most eminent authors and researching the works of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud), he now lives in Tokyo with his wife and son. He is at last completely free to dedicate himself to his real passion: writing short stories about life in ancient, modern and contemporary Japan. Two of his novellas have been shortlisted for the prestigious Akutagawa Prize.