When I was in a kindergarten, as far as I can remember, I already enjoyed drawing as much as reading and catching insects. I guess that I became more and more into drawing as I saw my pictures praised by adults and please my friends. I started reading manga around the time I started elementary school, and I was already copying and drawing manga using frames. I imagine that I was motivated by the people around me, just as before.
When I was in the fifth grade, I naturally acquired the intention to become a manga artist. Since then, I have almost always been drawing manga, at first for my friends and then gradually in a more professional capacity.
Even in the period when I stopped drawing for a few years, I was only taking a break, being in a slump and unable to draw; I have never quit or given up drawing manga. It has always been this way for me, and I don’t think there is any one particular reason that inspires me to “create” now. However, it is possible to say that the beginning of my ambition to create “manga in a literary style” was likely a result of being a fascinated and avid reader of such manga in my teenage years. Afterwards, I started reading Japanese and foreign literature and I feel as though I was saved by them. By the time I was twenty or so, my drawing style had changed and aimed to provide readers with similar sensations to those that I felt from reading such literature.
Regarding my work, especially this award winning title, I can say that I have developed this style of drawing since I was in my early twenties. At that time, I was feeling increasingly opposed to the idea that we should let readers consume so-called “social problems” as manga stories, especially when they regarded those problems as non-realistic or part of another reality, completely separate from their own. I started to create stories that could bring up an issue for discussion with readers in a way that made them feel as though the topic was close and inseparable from their own daily life. This could be considered the inspiration for this work.
As I mention in A6, I have experienced many significant things in my thirty and more years of life, and what I am and what my works are, is the result of all of those things, so it is very difficult to name one “lead.”

I am using rather common tools available from art supply shops. I use India ink instead of normal ink. I had been using crow quills for a long time, but when Suzuki Sensei became a series and I had to draw them quickly to meet every deadline, I switched to dip pens, as crow quills are easily caught by the paper can be difficult to draw quickly with.
The screen tones I am using are inexpensive DELETER's. I use a self-invented ruler when I draw with ink, which has angled sticks stuck underneath, so that there will be some space between the paper and the ruler. This allows me to draw faster and also slightly curl the lines in order to create different effects.

That they involve the readers.

As I answered in A1, over the past 15 years or so, my personal concept for my works has been as a form of entertainment that allows the reader to feel or think about the problems that each story deals with, and without completely dislocating the problems from their daily lives or consuming the so-called “social problems” depicted in the stories.

Regarding technology, I enjoy it as a viewer of genres other than manga; for instance, when films utilize the latest technologies to effectively express their theme or successfully appeal to the general viewer (not only to the technology specialist). However, I also enjoy films made using old methods (including those intentionally made in that manner).
Regarding media, I have long been familiar with the mass printed medium of “manga” and I cannot shut it from my mind as a means of expression. At the moment, I am trying not to care about the change from manga being printed on paper to being displayed on a screen, or the possibility that I may need to modify my own work to fit that new means of expression. My stories are best made to be read in book form.
Regarding mass media, I would prefer to cooperate and evolve it through my work, than criticize or deny the possibility. What I mean is that I am paying attention not only to the content of my stories, but also to their presentation and the possibilities for the future; for instance, building a public image as an artist. If an individual does not care about it, then he is effectively presenting himself as an artist who does not care about it to the public, which becomes a “gesture,” whatever his real intention is. I believe that becoming aware of these things is a mature way to deal with mass media.

As I answered in A1, I have been strongly influenced by many different things in my life, both by personal events and those I have appreciated from a distance, so it is difficult to name only a few. When many significant incidents and encounters with people and objects gradually mingle together over a long period of time, I feel as though a kind of chemical change happens inside me; I value those “associated” experiences.

I will continue with Suzuki Sensei for the immediate future; I want to explore every element possible with this style of story. Naturally, I expect that I will start pursuing the things that I had difficulty with or could not do in Suzuki Sensei in the future. I think that it would be bad for my physical and mental health and that of the readers if I push myself too hard for too long a period, as I am currently doing with Suzuki Sensei (laughter), so I wish to avoid this and work on a good mixture of children's stories and stories based other entertaining and original books, as I intend to lead a long and happy life as a manga artist.
In Suzuki Sensei , because of the character of the story, it is difficult to spare many pages for the scenery needed to depict feelings, so I feel like dealing with highly narrative stories in which I can express emotions to my heart’s content.

It is to enjoying a serious discourse between myself and society, which is apparently my job so far….