Ayako Sono | |
|---|---|
 Ayako Sono in 1956 | |
| Born | Chizuko Machida September 17, 1931 Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan |
| Education | University of the Sacred Heart |
| Notable works | Tamayura (たまゆら) Enrai no kyaku tachi (遠来の客たち) |
| Spouse | |
Ayako Sono (曽野 綾子, Sono Ayako, born September 17, 1931) is a Japanese writer.
Sono is considered to be a conservative. She was considered to be an advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. She has drawn controversy for advocating for a system similar to South Africa's apartheid for Japan's immigrants.[1][2][3] She has also advocated for women to quit their jobs after becoming pregnant.[4]
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Sono was born in 1931.[5] She went to the Catholic Sacred Heart School in Tokyo after elementary school.[5]
During World War II, she evacuated to Kanazawa. After writing for the fanzines La Mancha and Shin-Shicho (新思潮: "New Thought"),[6] she was recommended by Masao Yamakawa, an established critic at the time, to Mita Bungaku, for which she wrote Enrai No Kyaku Tachi (遠来の客たち: "Visitors from Afar"), one of the shortlisted stories for the Akutagawa Prize in 1954.[5] In 1953, she married Shumon Miura, one of the members of Shin-Shicho.[5]
The naming of The Bas Bleu Era (才女時代: Saijo-Jidai) by the writer and critic Yoshimi Usui described the prosperous activities of female writers including Sono and Sawako Ariyoshi—one of her contemporaries who had published many reputable books that are still being read.
In the history of Japanese literature, Sono belongs to the category of "the Third Generation" together with Shūsaku Endō, Shōtarō Yasuoka, Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, Nobuo Kojima, Junzo Shono, Keitaro Kondo, Hiroyuki Agawa, Shumon Miura, Tan Onuma, and Toshio Shimao.
She was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1979.[7] She founded an NGO named “Kaigai-senkyosha-katsudo-enjo-koenkai” (JOMAS: Japan Overseas Missionaries Assistance Society) to help Japanese missionaries devoting their lifetime in foreign countries.[8]
In 2000, she welcomed Alberto Fujimori, ex-President of Peru from 1990 to 2000, to stay at her house after his exile.
She has been selected as a Person of Cultural Merits in 2003, following her husband's honor in 1999.
After the death of Ryoichi Sasakawa, one of the biggest rightist leaders, Sono took over his position as the head of the Nippon Foundation, whose funds come from 3 percent of the profits of the boat races all over Japan. As the chairperson, she had focused on welfare and assistance of undeveloped countries, until 30 June 2005, when her term of office finally expired after nine and a half years. The position of the foundation chairman was taken over by Yohei Sasakawa.
She was nominated as director of the Japan Post Holding Co.'s board by Shizuka Kamei, minister in charge of postal reform, in October 2009.
She was appointed to one of 15 members of an education reform panel in January 2013, a position from which she resigned in October of that year.[1][9]
Sono drew criticism for a column she wrote in the Japanese far-right Sankei Shimbun newspaper in February 2015, in which she held South Africa's apartheid as an example of how Japan should handle immigration.[1][2][3] She stated that while she was "supportive" of the "need to bring in immigrants to ease the shortage of workers to care for Japan's ballooning elderly population", she also advocated non-Asian immigrants such as whites and blacks to Japan be separated from the general population and made to live in special zones amongst themselves.[10][11]
Her major novels include
