Karo Rei is a Japanese writer currently working between Japan and Europe.

Wanting to write novels set in Europe as authentically as possible, she spent more than a year traveling across the continent. During that time she occasionally worked at hostel receptions, volunteered on a farm in Austria, and experienced the everyday rhythms of life abroad — falling in love, feeling lost, and discovering new joy along the way.

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While her novels are often written in a cool, restrained tone, her essays and everyday personality are warm, curious, and optimistic. This quiet contradiction — between a colder narrative voice and a more open personal outlook — is part of what continues to drive her creative work.

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On her Substack essay blog, she experiments with incorporating Eastern philosophy into daily life, exploring ideas from Zen, traditional philosophy, tea culture, and food as practical ways to reshape everyday living.

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Her family background is also connected to older traditions: her ancestors included samurai and local village lords, and a distant relative serves as a senior monk at a UNESCO World Heritage temple in Japan. These influences contributed to her early exposure to traditional knowledge and philosophical thought.

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Looking ahead, she hopes to eventually relocate fully to Europe. As part of that path, she is preparing to pursue university studies in Europe with the aim of contributing meaningfully to European society.