to make do with manga alone, and quit at 24 years old. One of the pseudonyms he used at the time was . During his debut, he mainly drew human drama stories, but in the 1980s, the Japanese economy was booming and gambling-themed manga was thriving, so he began drawing gambling manga because it was easier to get work in that field. At the end of the 1980s, his mahjong gambling manga Ten began serialization in Kindai Mahjong Gold. It became Fukumoto's first popular work and established him as a well-known manga artist. In 1996, Fukumoto began serializing Kaiji in Weekly Young Magazine. The series has become a hit, publishing over 70 volumes and selling over 20 million copies, sealing his popularity as a manga artist. Fukumoto donated 30 million yen to the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, and has contributed a supportive illustration. He has also visited the affected areas to sign and draw illustrations for the victims. In recent years, he has been involved in making cameo appearances in live-action adaptations of his work, and writing screenplays for the second and third Kaiji films. Style Fukumoto is known as one of the leading gambling manga authors, and his work is defined by detailed psychological descriptions and intense characterizations. Much of his works depict men in extreme games, which range from modifications of existing games to original ones altogether. The number of female characters in his gambling-focused works is extremely low, although they do appear quite commonly in works that mainly deal with human nature. Later, however, he began Yami-Mahjong Fighter: Mamiya, a gambling-focused series with a female protagonist. When drawing, he has a unique penning method of spinning the manuscript paper as he draws. In July 2009, he appeared at the "Big Comic Superior Presents: The 6th "Rieko Saibara's Life Drawing Skill Showdown"" event held at Loft Plus One in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he drew an illustration of Kaiji in his unique way in front of a large audience and astounded other performers such as Saibara and Hisashi Eguchi. His favorite gambling activities include mahjong and sic bo, among others. His least favorite is horse racing. He has been playing mahjong since junior high school days, and admitted that though he has rarely lost a game when he was in school, his current level of ability is average. According