Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Toshikazu Kawaguchi was born in Osaka in 1971. His father passed away when he was a child. While in high school, Kawaguchi developed an interest in manga and aspired to become a manga artist. Although one of his comics caught the eye of a publisher, his work was never published. At 22, Kawaguchi became involved in theater, and he went on to become a producer, playwright, and director. He has worked with the theatrical group Sonic Snail, and he now heads a group called Kawaguchi Productions. Around 2010, he wrote Before the Coffee Gets Cold as a stage play. It won the first prize at the 10th Suginami Theater Festival in 2013. In 2011, an editor who went to see the play convinced Kawaguchi to adapt it as a novel. The book was warmly received by Japanese audiences, and it was adapted into a film that premiered in 2018. In 2019, the novel was translated into English and published in the United Kingdom. By 2020, it was a major international success. Since then, Kawaguchi has authored four companion novels.