Kon created the Japan Arts Festival, now an annual event for the promotion of cultural activities, especially Japanese literature. In 1946, Kon returned to Manila again, this time as a witness for the war crimes trial of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma. In 1949, Kon published Sanchu Horo ("Wandering in the Mountains"), a story based on his wartime experiences in the Philippines, which marked the start of his literary career. He received the Naoki Prize for his short story, Tenno no Boshi ("The Emperor's Hat") in 1950. Kon's other biographical works include Miki Kiyoshi ni Okeru Ningen no Kenkyu, a fictional biography of the philosopher Miki Kiyoshi, and Yoshida Shigeru, about the life of the post-war Prime Minister of Japan. He lost his sight in one eye due to retinal detachment in 1966. In June 1968, Prime Minister Eisaku Satō asked Kon to accept the newly created position of Director of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He served in this position for four years. From October 1972, he was also chairman of the Japan Foundation, a post which he held for eight years. During this time, his achievements included organizing an exhibition of art works from the Louvre in France, including the Mona Lisa, in return for an exhibition of the treasures of Tōshōdai-ji in Paris. Kon was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasures in 1974. In 1978, the Japanese government designated him a Person of Cultural Merit. He was also made honorary director of the National Theatre of Japan in 1980. Kon moved to Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture around 1931. After a temporary move to Tokyo after World War II, he returned to Kamakura, where he lived from 1951 until his death in 1984 at the age of 81. His grave is at the Catholic Cemetery in Kamakura. See also Japanese literature List of Japanese authors References Baskett, Michael. The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan. University of Hawaii Press (2008). Brandon, James. Kabuki's Forgotten War: 1931-1945. University of Hawaii Press (2009). Leiter, Samuel. Rising from the Flames: The Rebirth of Theater in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952. University of Hawaii Press (2009). Shi, Shumei. The Lure of the Modern: Writing Modernism in Semicolonial China, 1917-1937. University of California Press (2001). 1903 births 1984 deaths 20th-century translators 20th-century Japanese novelists People from Hakodate Japanese literary critics Japanese essayists Japanese male short story writers Japanese translators Japanese