Masako Togawa (戸川昌子) was a Japanese novelist, Chanson singer-songwriter, actress, feminist, LGBTQ+ activist, former night club owner, metropolitan city planning panelist and music educator. She was born in Tokyo, in 1933.
Masako Towaga began writing in 1961, backstage, between her stage appearances, and her first work
The Master Key was published a year later, in 1962, for which she was awarded the prestigious Edogawa Rampo Prize. The story is set in the same apartment she grew up in with her mother. Her second novel,
The Lady Killer , followed in 1963, becoming a bestseller. It was adapted for both TV and film, and nominated for the Naoki Prize.
She wrote more than thirty novels and was one of the most popular mystery writers in Japan, with many of her stories based on her own life experience.
She died in 2016.