A divorced single mother, she started out to write a sex guide for schoolgirls and ended up with a tale of female autonomy that became a best-selling novel.
Only one of the 13 titles nominated for the prestigious award for fiction translated into English is more than 300 pages long. But it is the one favored by critics.
A perennial front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he was a revered figure in Japan, not just in literary circles but also among casual readers.
The milestone comes after a particularly turbulent period, when the publisher was put up for sale and bought by a private equity firm. Since then, investments have boosted morale and helped it grow.