Junji Kawai

In 1977, he made his debut as a manga artist with "Bus Panic Tentekomai"(バスパニックてんてこまい) in Gekkan Shonen Jump magazine. After graduating from university, he moved to Tokyo and continued writing while working as an assistant to Kei Ishizaka and Akio Hotta (堀田あきお) and in 1984, he won the 7th Fujiko Fujio Award with "Zashiki Warashi Dayo! (ざしきわらしだよっ！) In 1987, he began serializing "Kattobase, Kiyohara-kun" (かっとばせ！キヨハラくん) in the monthly magazine Coro Coro Comic. Since then, he has been writing "Kiyohara-kun" series and other gag manga based on real-life professional baseball players, his representative works include "Kattobase! Kiyohara-kun", "Go Go! Gojira! Matsui-kun" (ゴーゴー!ゴジラッ!!マツイくん), "Morimori-kun! Bancho! Kiyohara-kun" (モリモリッ!ばんちょー!!キヨハラくん).

He wrote many professional baseball manga, which were serialized for almost 20 years in Gekkan Korokoro Comic, from 1987 to 2005, has also published a single-panel manga in Weekly Baseball. Although he primarily writes manga for children, he has also written several manga for young people.

In recognition of his achievements in baseball manga, he started a serialized column with illustrations, "Shiritsu no kuuron"(私情の空論), in April 16, 2012 issue for Weekly Baseball, where his unique touch in depicting baseball players' characteristics is still present.

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