Yoshimoto Banana, 1964 was born in Tokyo on July 24th. She is the second daughter of literary critic Yoshimoto. She decided to become a writer when she was only three or four years old. At first, it was because she couldn't draw a great cartoon like her sister (cartoonist Chunye Xiaozi). That's why I want to be a writer. When she was a girl, her favorite cartoons were "Monster" and "Q Taro" painted by Fujiko Fujio. The fantastic world presented in these works greatly influenced the style of Yoshimoto Banana's works, who later became a writer. She was very active until middle school. After entering high school, she suddenly became very closed. She not only lost interest in everything, but also lost her fighting spirit. She leads a wandering life every day, doing almost nothing except sleeping and eating. Because bananas go to independent colleges, and students are middle-class young ladies, school life is unremarkable. Banana, with an open nature, began her "sleeping life" in this ordinary life. During this period, she came into contact with Osamu Dazai's literary works and 37 works of Osamu Dazai Library, and read them all. In addition, Stephen King's writing charm also fascinated her deeply. Every time she gets his book, she always looks away after reading it. Osamu Dazai and Stephen King are good at expressing their thoughts on life through death.

After entering the Art College of Japanese University, she finally got rid of days of darkness in high school and lived happily every day. According to her, "it is because I entered the most suitable school and met the most suitable person." Four years of college passed quickly. Facing graduation, she still holds the ambition of being a writer. Therefore, she tried to write the short story Shadow in the Moonlight as her graduation thesis. This short story is included in the collection Kitchen. This work, which took only ten days to write, was affirmed by the Dean's Award of Art College, which made her more confident as a writer.

From 65438 to 0988, Kitchen, which she worked as a waitress in a restaurant, won the 6th Haiyan Newcomer Literature Award and became a best seller in the book market. So in a short period of two or three years, she has finished many works, such as Bubble, Sadness, Tugumi (Thrush), Night Boat on the White River and so on. Almost all of these books have reached the bestseller list, with a total circulation of over 4.7 million, which can be said to be an unprecedented record. This incident has attracted attention from all walks of life, resulting in the frequent use of "Gibbon banana phenomenon" and "Gibbon banana trend". Banana herself recalled this period and said, "What I saw in front of me was like a flash."

1998, she was nominated for the 99th and 100 Akutagawa Prizes for "Bubble/Shelter". Although she didn't win the prize, her talent attracted attention. She won the Spring Mirror Flower Literature Award, the Minister of Education, the Newcomer Award and the second Yamamoto Friday Lang Award.