Born in
Kobe, Japan, to a Japanese mother and a Jewish-American father, the writers
Fumiko Kometani and
Josh Greenfeld. Greenfeld grew up in Los Angeles and went to college in New York City, graduating from
Sarah Lawrence in 1987. A regular contributor to publications such as
GQ,
The Atlantic and
Vogue, Greenfeld was the managing editor of
Tokyo Journal before becoming the editor of
Time Asia from 2002–2004 and editor-at-large at
Sports Illustrated from 2004–2007. He was the Tokyo correspondent for
The Nation. He is the author of three books about Asia: ''
Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation
and Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia, and an account of the breakout of the SARS virus, China Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic''. Greenfeld was greatly influenced by his parents, especially his father. In an interview, he said, "My dad was a huge influence in terms of what I think about writing, what has to be in a story, what has to be in a book. He's still a huge influence. When I wrote something well, he would make me feel really good. When I wrote something bad, he made me feel terrible. As a kid, it was most of my highs and lowsto the point that if the writing was really good, it almost excused weeks of bad behavior. He would forgive any transgression if I wrote a good story." His younger brother Noah was the subject of the elder Greenfeld's "Noah" trilogy of books (
A Child Called Noah,
A Place for Noah, and
A Client Called Noah); these books also indirectly chronicle Greenfeld's childhood. In May 2009, Greenfeld published his own memoir of his years with Noah, ''Boy Alone: A Brother's Memoir''. His short stories have won the Pushcart Prize (2021), the Alice Hoffman Prize (2012) and O. Henry Prize (2012) and appeared in Best American Short Stories (2009 and 2013). His novel
Triburbia, about a group of families living in the
Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, was published by Harper in July 2012. His novel
The Subprimes about a woman who may or may not be the messiah, and the band of impoverished homeless Americans she comes to lead, was published by Harper in May 2015. He has written for the Showtime drama
Ray Donovan, the Netflix live action remake of
Cowboy Bebop, and the HBO Max series
Tokyo Vice. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and a Knight-Bagehott Fellow of Columbia University. In 2025, he wrote about the destruction of his home during the
Palisades Fire. ==Works==