Naoki Prize

The Naoki Prize, officially Naoki Sanjugo Prize (直木三十五賞), is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the Bungeishunjū magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, the award recognizes "the best work of popular literature in any format by a new, rising, or (reasonably young) established author." The winner receives a watch and one million yen.

Kikuchi founded the Naoki Prize with the Akutagawa Prize, which targets a new or rising author of literary fiction. The two prizes are viewed as "two sides of the same coin" and inseparable from one another. Because of the prestige associated with the Naoki Prize and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it, along with the Akutagawa Prize, is one of Japan's most sought after literary awards of recognition.

Winners
Bungeishunjū maintains the official archive of past Naoki Prize winners.

Winners available in English translation

 * 1961 (45th) - Tsutomu Mizukami, The Temple of the Wild Geese (In The Temple of the Wild Geese and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen, trans. Dennis C. Washburn, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008)
 * 1967 (57th) - Akiyuki Nosaka, American Hijiki (In The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, trans. Jay Rubin, Penguin Books, 2017) / A Grave of Fireflies (In Japan Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 4, trans. James R. Abrams, 1978)
 * 1973 (69th) - Hideo Osabe, Tsugaru Jonkarabushi and Tsugaru Yosarebushi (In Voices from the Snow, trans. James N. Westerhoven, Hirosaki University Press, 2009)
 * 1979 (81st) - Takashi Atōda, "Napoleon Crazy", "The Visitor", and "The Transparent Fish" (In Napoleon Crazy and other stories, trans. Stanleigh H. Jones, Kodansha International, 1986) / "Of Golf and Its Beginnings" and "A Treatise on Count St. German" (In The Square Persimmon and other stories, trans. Millicent M. Horton, Tuttle Publishing, 1991)
 * 1986 (96th) - Go Osaka, The Red Star of Cadiz (trans. Usha Jayaraman, Kurodahan Press, 2008)
 * 1993 (109th) - Aiko Kitahara, The Budding Tree (trans. Ian MacDonald, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008)
 * 1996 (115th) - Asa Nonami, The Hunter (trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter, Kodansha International, 2006)
 * 1997 (117th) - Jirō Asada, The Stationmaster (trans. Terry Gallagher, Viz Media, 2009)
 * 1998 (119th) - Chōkitsu Kurumatani, The Paradise Bird Tattoo (trans. Kenneth J. Bryson, Counterpoint, 2010)
 * 2000 (123rd)
 * Yoichi Funado, May in the Valley of the Rainbow (trans. Eve Alison Nyren, Vertical, 2006)
 * Kazuki Kaneshiro, Go (trans. Takami Nieda, AmazonCrossing, 2018)
 * 2005 (134th) - Keigo Higashino, The Devotion of Suspect X (trans. Alexander O. Smith, Minotaur Books, 2011)
 * 2016 (156th) - Riku Onda, Honeybees and Distant Thunder (trans. Philip Gabriel, Pegasus Books, 2023)
 * 2020 (163rd) - Hase Seishū, The Boy and the Dog (trans. Alison Watts, Viking Press, 2022)
 * 2021 (166th) - Honobu Yonezawa, The Samurai and the Prisoner (trans. Giuseppe di Martino, Yen Press, 2023)

Current members of the selection committee
(As of 2014)
 * Jirō Asada
 * Mariko Hayashi (ja)
 * Keigo Higashino
 * Shizuka Ijūin (ja)
 * Natsuo Kirino
 * Kenzo Kitakata
 * Miyuki Miyabe
 * Masamitsu Miyagitani (ja)
 * Kaoru Takamura (ja)