May 12, 2026
TOKYO – Koji Suzuki, the author known for horror novels such as “Ring” and “Rasen” (Spiral), passed away on Friday at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 68.
After graduating from Keio University, he made his debut as a novelist in 1990. After that, the trilogy that began with 1991’s “Ring” — centered on a mysterious woman named Sadako and a cursed videotape — became bestsellers and sparked a horror novel boom in Japan.
“Ring” was adapted into a film in 1998 and later remade in Hollywood. The movie version of “Ring” gained worldwide popularity for its use of slow-burn suspense and psychological depth, rather than gore, and became the catalyst for the rise of the genre of Japanese horror films known as “J-Horror.”
In 2013, the English translation of his novel “Edge” won a Shirley Jackson Award, a U.S. literary prize for fantasy and horror.