Life, life and humanity are the themes of Shuntaro Tanikawa's writing. The language of his poems is concise, clean and pure, especially the Zen and ethereal in recent years, which reveals a perceptual oriental wisdom. It is unique among the Japanese contemporary poets who rose after the war and is known as the standard-bearer of modern Japanese poetry.
In 2005, Shuntaro Tanikawa won the second "2 1 Century Dingjun Biennale Literature Award" together with other China writers, becoming the first foreign writer to win this honor. His prize-winning work is Selected Poems of Shuntaro Tanikawa edited and translated by China poet Tian Yuan. Shuntaro Tanikawa's works enjoy a high reputation in China's poetry circles and have an important influence on contemporary poets in China. In recent years, China has published a number of Selected Poems of Shuntaro Tanikawa, and China's World Literature, Foreign Literature, Poetry Magazine, Flower City, Everyone and Mangyuan have published Shuntaro Tanikawa's poems and Shuntaro Tanikawa's research papers.