Shogo Hirata (平田昭吾) is a picture book author and translator born in Manchuria (now Shenyang, northeastern China). He grew up in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
A pioneer of Japanese animated picture book culture, he has published 300 volumes (330 in total). He is also highly regarded outside of Japan, with the total number of volumes published overseas exceeding 300 million by 2005.