Hiromi Kawakami (born 1958) is a Japanese novelist whose fiction is celebrated for blending everyday life with subtle elements of the fantastic. She won the Akutagawa Prize in 1996 for "Hebi o Fumu" ("Treading on a Snake") and the Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Prize in 2001 for "Sensei no Kaban" ("The Briefcase"). Her best-known novel, "The Briefcase," follows the quiet relationship that develops between a middle-aged woman and her former teacher, portraying with remarkable delicacy the companionship, solitude, and emotional rhythms that emerge through ordinary moments.