She debuted as a writer in 1973 with the story Aoi kage no itami (The Pain of a Blue Shadow). In 1981 he published his first volume of short stories, Hoteru Zanbia (Hotel Zambia). She combined her work as an editor while writing fiction and poetry. In 2008 she won the Kawabata Prize for the short story Miru (The Sea Staghorn), and in 2010 she was awarded the MEXT Prize for the Arts, for the collection of stories of the same name. Later, with Hantō e (To the peninsula), a sequel to Miru, he won the prestigious Tanizaki Prize. Well-known in Japan for her love of cats, her most famous book is this Mii no inai asa (Twenty years without my cat), a memoir in which with evocative and exquisite prose she shares her experiences with her cat Mi.