Atsuo Inoue (born 1947) is a Japanese nonfiction writer and translator whose work includes biographies of business leaders and historical figures. Born in Gifu Prefecture, he began working as an interpreter-guide and magazine reporter while studying at Waseda University. In 1986, he conducted individual interviews with Bill Gates and CNN founder Ted Turner. He first interviewed Masayoshi Son in 1987 and has continued interviewing Son and people connected with his life and businesses. Tracing Son’s childhood, studies in the United States, founding of SoftBank, and expansion into telecommunications and investment, “Aiming High: Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, and Disrupting Silicon Valley,” originally published in Japanese as “Kokorozashi Takaku: Son Masayoshi Seiden,” draws on accounts from Son, family members, friends, and executives. It connects business decisions with the experiences and ambitions behind them, and Inoue has revised the Japanese work as his reporting has continued. Reconstructing the life of the Dutch-born missionary and educator Guido Verbeck, “Furubekki Den” examines his work in Japan from the late Tokugawa period through the Meiji era. Drawing on research in places associated with Verbeck and newly discovered or previously unpublished materials, Inoue explores his teaching of figures such as Shigenobu Okuma, his advice concerning the Iwakura Mission, and his religious and family life. The book received the Minoru Toyoda Prize from the Historical Society of English Studies in Japan in 2023.
