Eiko Kera is a Japanese manga artist best known as the creator of the long-running comedy series Atashin'chi. Born on December 2, 1962, in Tokyo, she graduated from the second literature department at Waseda University. Her professional name is a pen name derived from a childhood nickname taken from her family name, Kerakawauchi. She made her debut in 1987 with the series 3-iro Mikan published in Young Sunday. Prior to the widespread success of Atashin'chi, she created several manga series often based on her own life experiences, including Candid Marriage Life (Sekirara Kekkon Seikatsu) and The Fighting Bride (Tatakau Oyomesama), which documented her life as a newlywed after marrying in 1987.

Kera is most renowned for Atashin'chi, a comedy manga that depicts the everyday lives of the Tachibana family. The series began serialization in the Sunday edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in June 1994 and continued there for over 17 years until March 2012. The manga was later compiled into 21 tankōbon volumes by Media Factory. Its popularity led to a long-running anime television series produced by Shin-Ei Animation, which aired on TV Asahi from April 2002 to September 2009, totaling 330 episodes. The franchise expanded with an animated film in 2003, a 3D animated film in 2010, and a new anime series titled Shin Atashin'chi that aired from October 2015 to April 2016. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original manga, a new anime project was announced in 2024. After a seven-year hiatus, Kera resumed the Atashin'chi manga with a new serialization titled Atashin'chi SUPER in the magazine AERA starting in December 2019.

The artistic identity of Eiko Kera is closely tied to observational comedy rooted in ordinary domestic life. Atashin'chi is noted for its relatable depiction of a Japanese family, often highlighting the humorous and sometimes clumsy interactions between a frugal mother, a taciturn father, and their two children. The work received critical acclaim, winning the 42nd Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1996 and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002. Her early works before Atashin'chi often featured more adult-oriented comedic content, showcasing a range of humor that predated her mainstream family-oriented hit. Her significance in the industry is marked by the long-running success of Atashin'chi across multiple media formats, with over 12 million copies of the manga in circulation as of 2016, establishing it as a staple of Japanese popular culture.