Boris Akunin (real name Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili) is a Russian writer, Japanese scholar, literary critic, translator, public figure .. The author was born on May 20, 1956 . in Tbilisi . Since 1958. He lives in Moscow .. Graduated from the historical and philological department of the Institute of Asian and African Countries (MSU), has a degree in Japanese studies . He was engaged in literary translation from Japanese and English. Chhartishvili's translation includes Japanese authors Yukio Mishima, Kenji Maruyama, Yasushi Inoue, Masahiko Shimada, Kobo Abe, Shinichi Hoshi, Takeshi Kaiko, Shohei Ooka and others. He worked as deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine "Foreign Literature" (1999-2000), editor-in-chief of the 20-volume "Anthology of Japanese Literature", chairman of the board of the megaproject "Pushkin Library" (Soros Foundation) .