Born in 1950, Shiho Kishimoto graduated from Japan's Women's College of Fine Arts before holding a post in the Hong Kong branch of a Japanese trading company, where she was a currency trader. After appearing in court as a witness for the prosecution in a high-profile tax-evasion lawsuit against Mitsukoshi, she wrote the essay "My One Other Occupation." In 2003 she marked her debut as a novelist with the release of I Hear Them Cry, which was awarded the Toyo Shuppan Literary Award. Her other awards include the Tenth Shinpusha Foucault Masterpiece Award for the best short-story anthology for Lottery and the Aichi Publishing Critics' Award for her novel I See a Stranger. She lives in Tokyo, where she is active as a lecturer.