Ayako Sono

Ayako Sono (曽野 綾子, Sono Ayako; September 17, 1931 – February 28, 2025) was a Japanese writer. She published numerous novels, essays and articles between the 1950s and the early 2020s.

Sono was also considered to be nationalist and conservative. She drawn controversy for advocating for a system similar to South Africa's apartheid for Japan's immigrants. She had also advocated for women to quit their jobs after becoming pregnant.

Sono was born in 1931. She went to the Catholic Sacred Heart School in Tokyo after elementary school.

During World War II, she evacuated to Kanazawa. After writing for the fanzines La Mancha and Shin-Shicho (新思潮: "New Thought"), 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. In 1953, she married Shumon Miura, one of the members of Shin-Shicho.

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. 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.

In 2000, she welcomed Alberto Fujimori, ex-President of Peru from 1990 to 2000, to stay at her house after his exile.