Japan’s first female motorcycle police officer becomes a police novelist

KurokawaI heard that you were a former police officer. I’m curious as to what motivated you to retire and write a police novel.

MatsushimaIt wasn’t because I left my job as a police officer that I started to like novels, but I’ve always loved novels. I read them, of course, but I also started writing my own and submitted them to various novel awards.

KurokawaSo your novel writing came before your career as a police officer. Were you still writing novels while you were a police officer?

MatsushimaI couldn’t really write much when I was still active. The work was hard. But before that, when I was in high school, I used to write mystery stories.

Hiroyuki Kurokawa was born in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture in 1949. In 1983, his work “Nido no O-kare” (Two Goodbyes) was selected as an honorable mention in the first Suntory Mystery Award, and the following year, he made his debut as a novelist with the same work. In 1986, he won the 4th Suntory Mystery Award for “Cat’s Eye Rolled Over,” and in 1996, he won the 49th Mystery Writers of Japan Award for “Count Plan.” In 2014, he won the 151st Naoki Prize for “Haamon” (Haamon).

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KurokawaHow many years were you in the police force?

MatsushimaAbout six and a half years.

KurokawaHe must have been riding a police motorcycle.

MatsushimaOnly for the last two years. I was constantly training for about a year during that time. The other half was all about PR work. As the first female motorcycle police officer, I did things like performing rides at events. I left the police force in my mid-twenties, and after that I worked at a law firm, which gave me a lot of free time, so I started writing again.