The Kenzaburō Ōe Prize (大江健三郎賞) was a Japanese literary award sponsored by Kodansha (講談社) and established in 2006 to commemorate both the 100th anniversary of Kodansha's establishment and 50th anniversary of the writing life of Kenzaburō Ōe (大江健三郎).[1] The award was for Japanese literary novels published in the previous year, with the winning work selected solely by Ōe. The winner received no cash award, but several winning works were translated into other languages, such as English, French and German, for publication. Kenzaburō Ōe had an open conversation with each winner. The final prize was awarded in 2014, and the collected selection commentary and dialogues were reprinted in a single volume published by Kodansha in 2018.[2]
| Year | Author | Japanese title | English title | Ref | |
| 2007 | 長嶋有 Yū Nagashima | 夕子ちゃんの近道 Yūko-chan no Chikamichi | Yūko's Shortcut | [3] | |
| 2008 | 岡田利規 Toshiki Okada | わたしたちに許された特別な時間の終わり Watashitachi ni Yurusareta Tokubetsu na Jikan no Owari | The End of the Special Time Allowed to Us | [4] | |
| 2009 | 安藤礼二 Reiji Ando | 光の曼荼羅 日本文学論 Hikari no Mandara, Nihon Bungaku Ron | Mandala of Light: on Japanese Literature | ||
| 2010 | 中村文則 Fuminori Nakamura | Suri | The Thief (tr. Satako Izumo and Stephen Coates) | [5] | |
| 2011 | 星野智幸 Tomoyuki Hoshino | 俺俺 Ore Ore | ME (tr. Charles De Wolf) | [6] | |
| 2012 | 綿矢りさ Risa Wataya | かわいそうだね？ Kawaisou da ne? | Isn't It a Pity? | [7] | |
| 2013 | 本谷有希子 Yukiko Motoya | 嵐のピクニック Arashi no pikunikku | Picnic in the Storm | [8] | |
| 2014 | 岩城けい Kei Iwaki | さようなら、オレンジ Sayounara, orenji | Goodbye, My Orange | [9] |