Tokyo, Oct 6 (IANS): The Japanese government on Friday congratulated Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Ishiguro's win, which was announced on Thursday, was widely covered in Japanese media, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also offered his congratulations, reports Efe news.

"Japan is also home to a great number of his fans. Alongside them, I wish to congratulate Mr. Ishiguro on this magnificent achievement," Abe said.

The writer, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954 before moving to the UK at the age of five, has written eight books.

The Academy chose Ishiguro for the prestigious award for his "novels of great emotional force" and having "uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

His most prominent works include "An Artist of the Floating World" (1986), "The Remains of the Day" (1989), which won the Booker Prize and was made into a movie, and "Never Let Me Go" (2005).