Japanese (fiction) authors!

You guys have any good Japanese authors to recommend? I've been developing an increasing interest in these kinds of books, I find that I like the stories.
I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami about a year ago now, and since then, I've read pretty much everything of his, down to 'unpublished' short stories, I guess he's pretty much been my favorite author as of late. I've read a few other authors, although the only two that come to mind now are Murakami and Koji Suzuki. So, I need some reading material, and need some ideas.

Author or book would be appreciated, along with maybe, why you recommend them.

you just know there's something wrong with you when you read books based on the author's nationality.

sigh.

>>2

Depends, if you want to read books about japanese culture/history based on at least some factual information, its probably not too bad an idea to look at japanese authors.

(Im not >>1 btw)

Rising Sun by Michael Crichton.  It's about evil hissing Japanese businessmen. 

Michael Crichton isn't Japanese any more than William Gibson is, no matter how much they might think they are.

2ちゃんねるをマネしてるようだけど
全然似てないから、つーか中途半端に意識しすぎ、
BSE罹ってるからわかんないか。

外人でもこういうサイト好きなのかね。2chが世界制覇するのか
こえーなｗ

書き込んだらVIPクオリティとかでたぞｗｗｗ

くぁwせｄｒｆｔｇｙふじこｌｐ＠；：「」

なんだこれ

もう少しレイアウトを変えてみようよ。

2chが世界制覇するのか・・・・いつかRINGが出来てたりして。
もともと、2chねる鯖はアメリカにあるとか言ってたっけ。

日本語通るあるね。
すんごいあるね

一瞬でるVIPクオリティって何ｗ

すごすｗｗｗｗ

(ﾟνﾟ)ﾆﾎﾝｺﾞﾑｽﾞｶｽｨﾈｰ

I'd recommend looking into Ryu Murakami.  He's more... raw, I guess, than Haruki (no relation, btw) but still very good.  69 and In the Miso Soup are his best, IMO.  Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen is a good read but I didn't like her other stuff.

As far as more "classic" Japanese authors, check out Kenzaburo Oe, one of Japan's two Nobel Prize for Literature winners.  He won for A Personal Matter, which is good, and has a host of other works.  Yasunari Kawabata, Natsume Soseki, and Junichiro Tanizaki are also good "classic" authors, but their styles vary widely and would be up to personal taste.  Murakami is something of a big departure from his predecessors.

As a Japanese major, I'm contractually obligated to tell you that you have to read Kokoro by Soseki and Snow Country by Kawabata.  They're pretty much the Great Japanese Novels.

P.S.  Hey, >>2, is it a problem that I want to read novels by Japanese authors, seeing as I'm majoring in Japanese literature?  Fool.  (Or maybe I'm the fool for majoring in it in the first place, lol jobs)