A MONKEY that confesses he steals women’s identity cards, causing them to temporarily forget who they are, starred Tuesday as author Haruki Murakami marked 40 years since his debut as a novelist with his first public reading in Japan in nearly a quarter century.

Now 70 and one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed novelists, Murakami debuted with “Hear the Wind Sing” in 1979, four years after he began writing while running a jazz bar in Tokyo. His 1987 romantic novel “Norwegian Wood” was his first best-seller, establishing him as a young literary star. His latest novel, “Killing Commendatore,” hit U.S. bookstores last year.

Media-shy Murakami’s last public readings were in Kobe and Ashiya in western Japan, where he grew up, following a deadly 1995 earthquake there. On Tuesday, he was joined by young award-winning young female novelist Mieko Kawakami, a longtime Murakami fan who was in the audience at both events 24 years ago before she became a novelist.

After the two authors took turns reading passages from their works, Murakami introduced a yet-to-be-published novel called “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” which is a sequel to “A Shinagawa Monkey” published as part of a 2002 compilation, “Five Strange Tales From Tokyo.”

Kawakami won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 2008 for “Breasts and Eggs” and has penned other award-winning novels including “Dreams of Love, Etc.,” “Yearning” and “Heaven.”

(SD-Agencies)