Nagata Shuya (born 2003) is a Japanese novelist from Shizuoka Prefecture. While studying English literature at Doshisha University, he won the 69th Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 2026 for his debut novel, “Hone to Kusari.” The novel follows Riku and Tatsuki, two sixth-grade boys whose friendship has made them seem almost like twins. Told through their alternating perspectives, it traces how their close bond begins to fracture and how the balance of power between them reverses, revealing a volatile relationship in which friendship, domination, dependence, and violence become inseparably entangled.
