Birth date：August 15th 1966
Birth place:Tokyo
Official website:
http://natsuki.air-nifty.com/

The only Japanese to have competed continuously in the World Cup for 8 years, Iijima is a world-renowned professional wind-surfer.　　Basing himself in Maui and Guam, he was active all over the world, competing in on average 20 competitions a year. As well as collecting prizes at countless international competitions, Iijima is the winner of numerous Japanese nation-wide competitions. After moving to and establishing himself in Guam in 1993, he started up a marine sports centre, and devoted himself to the teaching of windsurfing.

In June 2002, Natsuki Iijima was diagnosed with liver cancer, and despite undergoing major surgery twice, as well as various forms of therapy, his condition worsened. He was struck by depression and panic attacks but with the support and encouragement of family and friends, he succeeded in overcoming these. He felt that he was “being allowed to live”, and found great inspiration and motivation to go on living through a passion for writing, which he discovered by chance just around this time. In June 2004, Iijima’s first novel, “Tengoku de kimi ni aetara” “If I see you in heaven”, was published by Shinchosha, and has gone on to be praised highly as a masterpiece on life, death and love. He is now working on a sequel.

Despite having been pronounced incurable, Iijima moved indefinitely to Hawaii, where he lives with his wife and four young children. Since September, he has been contributing a series of essays entitled “kyo mo ikasareteimasu” to Shinchosha’s home page.

The Shinchosha publishing homepage can be found (in Japanese) at:　http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/tenkimi/index.html