Naoki Higashida (東田 直樹, Higashida Naoki; born August 12, 1992) is an autistic Japanese writer. His best known work, The Reason I Jump, written when he was thirteen, has been translated into over 30 languages and was adapted for both stage and screen. The Economist has described him as "probably the most widely read Japanese author after Haruki Murakami". Higashida's autism is "labelled severe and non-verbal," though he can vocalize in limited contexts. He communicates by pointing to letters on an alphabet grid and sounding them out, with a transcriber writing down what he spells, and also by typing on a computer.
