is a Japanese film and literary critic, as well as a professor at Rikkyo University.
After graduation from the University of Tokyo, he worked for the Asahi Newspaper company before leaving in 1972 to become a critic. He was one critic who helped to discover the talents of Haruki Murakami. He won the Suntory Prize for his book Taishà « Genei in 1991, the Yomiuri Literature Award for Kafà « and Tokyo in 1997, and the Ità  Sei Literature Award for Hakushu Bà Âkei in 2012.
Around 1970 he became close to a student radical when covering him as a journalist. When that student attacked an officer of the Japanese Self-Defence Force in Asaka, Saitama, killing him, Kawamoto was arrested for spoliation of evidence. He was convicted and given a sentence of probation. He was fired from the Asahi Newspaper company. Thereafter, he became a freelance writer. Nobuhiro Yamashita's film, My Back Page, is based on Kawamoto's essay about this affair.