Born in Kobe, Ishihara Shintaro burst onto the literary scene in 1956, winning the prestigious Akutagawa Prize while still a student at Hitotsubashi University for his novel "Season of the Sun" (Taiyo no Kisetsu). The book sparked the 'Taiyozoku' (Sun Tribe) youth culture phenomenon of the late 1950s and was adapted into film. He pivoted to politics, winning a seat in the House of Councillors in 1968 with the highest vote total nationwide, and subsequently served in the House of Representatives, as Director-General of the Environment Agency, and as Minister of Transport. He was elected Governor of Tokyo in 1999 and served four terms until his resignation in 2012. As governor he championed Tokyo's international competitiveness, established the Tokyo New Bank (which later failed), and led the unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Olympics. He regularly visited Yasukuni Shrine, famously saying 'It's only natural as a Japanese person' — making him a leading right-wing voice on the Yasukuni debate. In 2012 he announced plans to purchase the Senkaku Islands as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, effectively forcing the national government to nationalize them. He later returned to national politics as co-leader of Japan Restoration Association before retiring in 2014. His younger brother was the actor Ishihara Yujiro (1934-1987). He died in 2022 at age 89, remembered as a singular figure who straddled postwar Japan's worlds of literature and conservative politics.

Known as a plain-spoken provocateur who repeatedly stirred controversy on diplomacy, historical recognition, and ethnic issues. At the same time, he possessed genuine literary sensibility and personal aesthetic, with wide interests spanning yachting, film, and sport. His forceful personality and nationalist worldview embodied one strand of conservative Japanese politics through the Showa and Heisei eras.

"Season of the Sun" remains a landmark of postwar literature, and Ishihara's career — Akutagawa Prize winner turned governor of the world's largest metropolis — stands as uniquely Japanese. His actions on Yasukuni and the Senkaku Islands had significant real-world impact on Japan's domestic politics and diplomacy. Celebrated and condemned in equal measure, he is inscribed in history as a defining figure of postwar Japanese right-wing nationalism.