Aya Watanabe

Aya Watanabe (渡辺あや / WATANABE Aya) is a Japanese screenwriter. She was born on February 18, 1970 in Hyogo Prefecture.

After graduating from Konan Women’s University, Watanabe spent five years in Germany. She then worked as manager of a general store in Shimane Prefecture while raising one child. She got her big break by submitting some of her work to the official site of Shunji Iwai in 1999, where it was eventually discovered by movie producer Osamu Kubota.

In 2003, Kubota gave her the opportunity to adapt a screenplay for the film adaptation of Seiko Tanabe’s novel Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. She has since gone on to write screenplays for several high profile films. She still lives in Shimane and now has two children.