Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1949. He is an excelling novelist, short-story writer, and translator. In 1991, he moved to the United States, where he taught at both Princeton and Tufts Universities. He then moved back to Japan, where he continued his successful career. One of his translators, Jay Rubin, is an American translator. The other, Philip Gabriel, is also an American translator, but is also a Japanologist.