Murakami was born on January 12, 1949 in Kyoto, Japan. He grew up primarily in Kobe as a single child. His parents, both advocates for literature, heavily influenced him along with western ideas that would later play a huge role in his writing career. Following his college experience at Waseda University, his wife and him opened up a coffee house and ran it for seven years. Marukami started his writing career later than others at the age of 29. Since then, he has been writing. He has no known kids and is healthy to this day.