Takao Saito

Takao Saito (Japanese: 斎藤 隆夫（さいとう・たかを）, Hepburn: Saitō Takao, born November 3, 1936) is a Japanese manga artist, although he rejects the term and considers his work gekiga. He is best known for Golgo 13, which has been serialized in Big Comic since 1968, making it the oldest manga still in publication.

Born in Nishiwasa city (now Wakayama city), Saito moved soon after and grew up in Osaka. He did not know he was born in Nishiwasa until he was 43 years old. After graduating from junior high school, Saito decided to become a manga artist, influenced by movies like King Kong and War of the Worlds.

He debuted with his first manga Baron Air in 1955. In 1958 he moved to Tokyo, where he started a comic story atelier (劇画工房) together with seven other artists (Masahiko Matsumoto, Aki Masa Sato, Fumi Ishikawa Yasu, Masaru Sakurai, Susumu Mon, Tsu Motomi, Qi Mahi). Since April 1960, he has run Saito Production, a company with currently 19 employees. In 1971 he also started to give courses in drawing manga.

Saito was also a close friend of fellow manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori.

Saito is a director at Leed Publishing (株式会社リイド社), a publishing company spun-off from his Saito Production. It was founded in November 1974 and Saito's older brother was its president and CEO until his death in 2016. Following his brother's death, his brother's eldest son took over. In addition to many other products, Leed jointly publishes the Golgo 13 tankōbon volumes with Shogakukan.

In 1976, Saito won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category for Golgo 13.

In 2002, he and Golgo 13 won the Grand Prize at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.

In 2003, the Japanese government gave Saito the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his contributions to the arts.

In 2005, Golgo was one of two winners of the Special Judges Award at the 50th Shogakukan Manga Awards.

In 2009, Saito was among the 158 manga artists invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of both Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine and Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel.

In 2010, the Japanese Government gave Saito the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette.

In 2013, over 300 people attended an event at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel to celebrate 45 years of Golgo 13, including Deputy Prime Minister of Japan Tarō Asō.

In 2017, Saito received the Iwate Hometown Special Manga Award at the 7th Iwate Manga Awards for having a residence in Hanamaki, Iwate and including a character from the prefecture in Golgo 13.

In January 2018, he received the Wakayama Prefecture Cultural Award from his birth prefecture.

In 2019, Saito was honored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly for his contributions to the arts as a meritorious resident of Tokyo. That year he was also awarded the Special Prize from the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize committee for his contributions to manga over the decades.

The Saito Takao Gekiga Cultural Foundation established the Saito Takao Award (さいとう・たかを賞, Saitō Takao Shō) in 2017 and first awarded it in 2018. It is given in three categories: manga artist, scenario writer, and editor/editorial department. The prize given is called the "Golgo 13 Trophy," and winners in the manga artist and scenario writer categories also receive 500,000 yen (about US$4,530). Only professional manga editors can submit nominations. Nominated manga must target adult readers and be completely original works, not adaptations.

• Baron Air (空気男爵, 1955)
• Typhoon Goro (台風五郎, 1958)
• 007 Series (1964–1967)
• Golgo 13 (ゴルゴ13, 1968)
• Kage Gari (影狩り, 1969)
• Survival (サバイバル, 1976)
• Barom-1 (バロム・1, 1970)
• Japan Sinks (1970) (manga adaptation)
• Master Thief Sugar (怪盗シュガー, Kaitō Shugā), which was adapted into the unreleased NES video game Secret Ties.
• Doll: The Hotel Detective (ホテル探偵DOLL, 1980)\
• Professional Swordsmen of the Edo Era (剣客商売)
• The Shadowman (THE シャドウマン)
• Breakdown (ブレイクダウン, 1995)