was a Japanese screenwriter most famous for collaborating with Yasujirà  Ozu on many of the director's films.
Born in Hakodate, Noda was the son of the head of the local tax bureau and younger brother to Kyà «ho, a Nihonga painter. He moved to Nagoya after completing elementary school and later went to Waseda University. After graduating, he worked for the city of Tokyo while also serving as a reporter for Katsudà  kurabu, one of the major film magazines, using the pen name Harunosuke Midorikawa. On the recommendation of a scriptwriter friend from junior high, Takashi Oda, he joined the script department at Shà Âchiku after the Great Kantà  earthquake. He soon became one of the studio's central screenwriters, penning for instance Aizen katsura (1938), one of its biggest pre-war hits.
He is most known for his collaborations with Ozu, which began with Noda supplying the script for the director's first feature Sword of Penitence (1927), and led to such postwar works as Tokyo Story (1953), regarded by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time. He co-wrote thirteen of Ozu's fifteen post-war films.
When the Writers Association of Japan was formed in 1950, Noda served as its first chair.