Rie Qudan
Rie Qudan or Rie Kudan is a Japanese novelist. In 2024, Qudan won the 170th Akutagawa Prize for her novel . She stated that about 5% of the novel was written by artificial intelligence.
Early life and education
Qudan was born on September 27, 1990, in Urawa in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.She won her first writing award for an essay she wrote during sixth grade in elementary school.
Career
Qudan worked as a laboratory assistant after graduation from university.In 2021, Qudan won the 126th Literary World Newcomer Award with her debut novel, .
Warui Ongaku and Qudan's novella Schoolgirl were published in an English translation by Haydn Trowell by Gazebo Books in March 2025 in a volume titled Schoolgirl.
Her 2024 novel is a science fiction story about an architect who designs a tower to be built in Tokyo's Shinjuku Gyo-en garden and used as a prison to rehabilitate criminals comfortably. Set in a version of Tokyo in the near future where Zaha Hadid's version of the Japan [National Stadium|National Stadium] for the Tokyo Olympics was built, the story is told from the perspective of the architect and her would-be biographer. The novel contains themes concerning artificial intelligence.
won Qudan the 170th Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan's most prestigious literary awards for new authors. During a press conference, Qudan mentioned that she used ChatGPT, a chatbot based on generative artificial intelligence, to write about 5% of her novel. She later clarified that AI was only used to write the AI's dialogue in the novel.
Upon its English-language release, was described by David Vernon writing in The Spectator as 'a lyrical, witty, satirical but meditative and meticulous text', one that 'feels so über-zeitgeisty that it might have been written this morning... Yet it is far more than merely topical or trendy, as deep moral, political, social, cultural, architectural and lingual problems collide, merge and inform each other throughout'.