Ryoji Arai is a Japanese artist best known as a picture book author and illustrator, though his body of work also includes original anime and manga. Born in Yamagata Prefecture in 1956, Arai studied art at the Nihon University College of Art. He first emerged as a picture book creator in 1990 with the limited-edition book Melody and over the following decades became one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed illustrators.

Arai is the original creator behind the anime short Sukima no Kuni no Polta, also known as A Country Between the Worlds. This thirteen-episode series, with each episode running approximately five minutes, aired from 2005 to 2007. The story follows a gentle character named Porta who delivers parcels while riding his partner Robaroba in a tranquil land that exists between other worlds. The series is noted as Arai’s first original animation. In 2006, the animated short received the Excellence Award in the animation division of the Japan Media Arts Festival.

In the field of manga, Arai created Ho So Michi Kun, published in 2011. The work has been described as his first manga and follows a character who continues walking endlessly, with the road continuing on from wherever one arrives.

Arai’s artistic identity is defined by a distinctive visual language that embraces spontaneity, vivid color, and a deliberately childlike perspective. The jury for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which he won in 2005, described him as an illustrator with a style all his own: bold, mischievous, and unpredictable, whose picture books glow with warmth, playful good humor, and an audacious spontaneity that appeals to children and adults alike. He was the first Japanese recipient of this major international children’s literature award. His creative process often involves unconventional methods, such as squeezing pigments directly onto paper or using very short pencils to avoid overly mature or adult-like depictions. His work frequently explores nonsense, everyday happiness, and the freedom of a child’s way of seeing the world, with many of his books featuring minimal plot and emphasizing atmosphere, color, and musicality instead. Arai has stated that he tries to throw away the adult part of his heart and pull out his inner child when creating, believing that technically skilled illustrations alone cannot touch children.

Arai’s significance in the industry extends beyond his own creations. He has published more than sixty picture books of his own and illustrated over two hundred other children’s books. He has also worked in advertising, magazine illustration, and theater set design. His numerous awards include the Japan Picture Book Award for Refrain, Refrain in 2005, the Special Award at the Bologna Book Fair for A Journey of Riddles in 1999, and a nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award shortlist in 2022. His work is recognized for encouraging children to paint and tell their own stories, and for bringing poetry, freedom, and imagination to a broad audience.