Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami was the subject of a hoax on social media today, as a Twitter account seemingly belonging to his Japanese publisher Shinchosa tweeted a message claiming he had died.

“Novelist Haruki Murakami dies. Official press note to be released soon,” read the message, posted at around 3.45pm on Thursday afternoon.

The account, ShinchoshaNews, was set up in April this year, and tweeted for the first time today, saying: "This is the official English news Twitter account for Shinchosha. All news about books and author from the Japan leading publishing house."

The tweet falsely announcing Murakami's death was sent just a few minutes later - but was spotted by numerous fans of the author, who retweeted it to their followers.