外岡 秀俊（SOTOOKA Hidetoshi）- 小説家、ジャーナリスト、朝日新聞社東京本社編集局長

外岡 秀俊（そとおか ひでとし、1953年–2021年）は、日本のジャーナリスト・小説家。札幌市生まれ。東京大学法学部を卒業し、1977年に朝日新聞社へ入社。ニューヨーク支局員、欧州総局長、東京本社編集局長などを歴任し、2011年の退職後は札幌を拠点に取材と執筆を続けた。北海道の炭鉱町から東京へ集団就職した青年を描く『北帰行』では、職を失った主人公が石川啄木の足跡をたどる旅に出る姿を通じ、故郷と青春、都市で生きる孤独を描き、東京大学在学中の1976年に文藝賞を受賞した。阪神・淡路大震災を社会の仕組みから検証する『地震と社会――「阪神大震災」記』では、日本の地震学や過去の震災記録を踏まえ、行政の対応、救援、住宅再建、ボランティア、被災者の生活を広く取材。また、地震、津波、福島第一原発事故が重なった経験を記録する『3・11 複合被災』では、被災地の人々の証言と政府・自治体の対応をたどり、災害の全体像と復興に残された課題を考察した。現場の声を歴史や制度と結びつけ、災害によって露わになる社会の弱点と、一人ひとりの生活の再建を問い続けた。

Hidetoshi Sotooka (1953–2021) was a Japanese journalist and novelist born in Sapporo. After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law, he joined the Asahi Shimbun in 1977. He worked in its New York bureau, headed its European bureau, and served as managing editor of its Tokyo headquarters. After leaving the newspaper in 2011, he continued reporting and writing from Sapporo. Following a young man who moves from a Hokkaido coal-mining town to Tokyo for factory work, “Hokkiko” connects the protagonist’s unemployment and journey along the poet Ishikawa Takuboku’s footsteps with questions of home, youth, and urban loneliness. It won the Bungei Prize in 1976 while Sotooka was still a university student. Investigating the social dimensions of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, “Jishin to Shakai: ‘Hanshin Daishinsai’ Ki” combines reporting with the history of Japanese seismology and earlier disaster records. Its subjects include emergency response, housing reconstruction, volunteer activity, and survivors’ lives. Documenting the overlapping earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster, “3.11 Fukugo Hisai” brings testimony from affected communities together with an examination of government responses and unresolved recovery issues. Sotooka’s work connected individual experience with historical and institutional contexts, examining both the vulnerabilities exposed by disasters and the difficulties of rebuilding everyday life.