Akira Yoshimura
was a award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels Shipwrecks and On Parole.

Life and work 
Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN member. He published over 20 novels, of which On Parole and Shipwrecks are internationally known and have been translated into several languages. In 1984 he received the Yomiuri Prize for his novel Hagoku (, On Parole) based on the true story of Yoshie Shiratori.

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yoshimura's nonfiction chronicle of three previous tsunamis on the coast of Sanriku, Sanriku Kaigan Otsunami received an influx of orders, requiring a reprint of 150,000 copies. Yoshimura's wife and author in her own right, Setsuko Tsumura donated the royalties from the book to the village of Tanohata, which was heavily impacted by the tsunami. Tanohata was a favorite place of Yoshimura's to visit and inspired him to begin research on the historical tsunamis of the area.

Yoshimura was married to the writer Setsuko Tsumura.

Books (selection) 
 1966 Senkan Musashi ()
 English edition:. Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the Worlds Biggest Battleship. Kodansha USA, 1999 
 1967 Mizu no sōretsu ()
 1970 Umi no kabe sanriku kaigan ōtsunami ()
 1978 Tōi hi no sensō ()
 English edition: One Man’s Justice. Canongate 2004, 
 1979 Pōtsumasu no hata (
 1982 Hasen ()
 English edition: Shipwrecks (, Hasen). Harvest Books 1996, 
1983 Hagoku ()
 English edition: On Parole Harvest Books 2000, , loosely adapted into a movie as The Eel 
 1988 Karishakuhō ()
 1989 Yami ni hirameku ()
 1998 Namamugi jiken (

Awards and honors
 1966 - Dazai Osamu Prize
 1973 - Kikuchi Kan Prize
 1985 - 36th Yomiuri Prize
 1997 - Japan Art Academy member
 2006 - Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class