Nagai Akira

Born in Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture. His father was a former army doctor who fought as a village doctor in his hometown from the end of the war until his death at the age of 85.

Nagai studied at Mihara Higashi High School in Hiroshima Prefecture and graduated from Tokyo Medical University School of Medicine. He became a physician and worked at Kanagawa Prefectural Hospital, where his position at the time of his retirement was Chief of Internal Medicine. Along the way, he has studied at the International Institute for Stress Research at the University of Montreal. He holds a doctorate in medicine (Tokyo Medical University).

In 1982, he left his full-time job as a physician and set up a planning and publishing company, Shoeisha Ltd. He also worked as a medical journalist, writing a series of articles for QA magazine, published by Heibonsha. In DAYS JAPAN, published by Kodansha, he interviewed American medical researchers such as Robert Gallo, considered the discoverer of HIV, and Peter Duesberg, who argues that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, in a special article on AIDS.

Since 1998, he has been working as a shipboard doctor on the research vessels Kaiyo Maru and Teruyo Maru of the Fisheries Agency, and on the training vessel Koyo Maru of the Fisheries University. Half of the year is spent at sea. The book "Ayashii Funaishi, Minami Taiheiyo wo Yuku" (あやしい船医、南太平洋をゆく) it's a reccord of his voyage

As a medical journalist, he has written from various perspectives, but Akira's basic stance was to "aim for a bridge between the medical field and society at large, which is far from it." In addition, he wrote the original script for comics "Kenshuui Furuya Kenichi" and Iryuu: Team Medical Dragon", supervised animation version of Black Jack, and co-wrote the screenplay with Kazuki Omori for the 1990 film "Boku ga Byouki ni Natta Riyuu (ボクが病気になった理由)."

He passed away from complications resulting from liver cancer on July 7, 2004

His major works include such as the series:

• "Boku ga Isha o Yameta Riyuu (ぼくが医者をやめた理由)", based on his own experiences as a doctor.
• "Black Jack ni Nanare Nai Keredo (ブラック・ジャックにはなれないけれど)"
• "Katarezu - Tokai Daigaku Anraku-shi Satsujin Jiken (病者は語れず―東海大学安楽死殺人事件)".
• "Jitsuroku Otoko no Kounenki (実録・男の更年期)".
• "Yamu Hito, Iyasenu Hito (病む人、癒せぬ人)".
• "Byousha wa Katarezu (病者は語れず)".
• "Kimajimena Shinzou (生真面目な心臓)".
• "Boku ni Rougo ga Muru Mae ni(ぼくに老後がくる前に)".