Akutagawa Prize
Her first book, "Passover", received the distinguished Akutagawa Prize. It was subsequently described in the "New York Times" as "anti-Semitic" and an example of Japan's "widespread anti-Semitism", although Kometani's husband is Jewish, and the novel was an adaption of a visit to his parents' house. A judge for the Akutagawa Prize claimed that the "Times" had misinterpreted the sardonic and self-ridiculing tone of the novel.