Hisashi Inoue (1934–2010) was a Japanese novelist and playwright. Born in Yamagata Prefecture, he graduated from the Faculty of Literature at Sophia University. After working at the France-za theater in Asakusa, he became a successful scriptwriter, co-writing the NHK puppet television series "Hyokkori Hyotanjima." Working across fiction, drama, and essays, he received the Naoki Prize for "Tegusari Shinju" and both the Yomiuri Prize for Literature and the Nihon SF Taisho Award for "Kirikirijin." In 1984, he founded the theater company Komatsu-za, and in 2004 he was named a Person of Cultural Merit. His major novel "Kirikirijin" begins with a small village in northeastern Japan declaring independence and uses the imagined nation’s language, currency, and institutions to satirize Japanese politics, economics, agriculture, medicine, and attitudes toward language.