Alex Kerr is an American writer and Japanologist whose previous books include Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons and Another Kyoto (with Kathy Arlyn Sokol). He was the first foreigner to be awarded the Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize for the best work of non-fiction published in Japan. First visiting Bangkok in the 1970s, since 1990 he has lived half of each year in Kyoto, the other half in Bangkok.