Since 1949, there have been 29 Japanese laureates of the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901. An associated prize, thus far, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, also sometimes known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, has yet to be awarded to a Japanese national.
The Nobel Prizes in the above specific sciences disciplines and the Prize in Economics, which is commonly identified with them, are widely regarded as the most prestigious award one can receive in those fields.[1] [2] Of Japanese winners, twelve have been physicists, eight chemists, three for literature, five for physiology or medicine, and one for efforts towards peace.
In the 21st century, in the field of natural science, the number of Japanese winners of the Nobel Prize has been second behind the U.S.
Physics | 9 | 3 | 12 | Yoichiro Nambu, Shuji Nakamura, and Syukuro Manabe became American citizens. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chemistry | 8 | - | 8 | Ei-ichi Negishi was born in Manchuria | |
Physiology or Medicine | 5 | - | 5 | ||
Literature | 2 | 1 | 3 | Kazuo Ishiguro became a British citizen in 1983.[3] [4] | |
Peace | 1 | - | 1 | ||
Total | 25 | 4 | 29 |
Aside from the 29 Japanese Nobel laureates, a number of Japanese individuals and Japan-based organizations were affiliated with laureate organizations to which they contributed largely and were active members at the time they were awarded:
Year | Image | Laureate | Born | Died | Field | Citation | Alma mater (Undergraduate) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citizens | ||||||||
1949 | Hideki Yukawa | 23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan | 8 September 1981 Kyoto, Japan | Physics | "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces."[5] | KyotoU | ||
1965 | Sin-Itiro Tomonaga | 31 March 1906 Tokyo, Japan | 8 July 1979 Tokyo, Japan | Physics | "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles."[6] (jointly with American theoretical physicists Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman) | KyotoU | ||
1968 | Yasunari Kawabata | 11 June 1899 Osaka, Japan | 16 April 1972 Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan | Literature | "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind."[7] | UTokyo | ||
1973 | Leo Esaki | 12 March 1925 Takaida, Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan | Physics | "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively."[8] (jointly with Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Giaever and shared with Welsh theoretical physicist Brian David Josephson) | UTokyo | |||
1974 | Eisaku Satō | 27 March 1901 Tabuse, Yamaguchi, Japan | 3 June 1975 Tokyo, Japan | Peace | "for his contribution to stabilize conditions in the Pacific rim area and for signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."[9] (shared with Irish politician Seán MacBride) | UTokyo | ||
1981 | Kenichi Fukui | 4 October 1918 Ikoma, Nara, Japan | 9 January 1998 Kyoto, Japan | Chemistry | "for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions."[10] (jointly with Polish-American theoretical chemist Roald Hoffmann) | KyotoU | ||
1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | 5 September 1939 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | Physiology or Medicine | "for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity."[11] | KyotoU | |||
1994 | Kenzaburō Ōe | 31 January 1935 Ōse, Ehime, Japan | 3 March 2023 Tokyo, Japan | Literature | "who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."[12] | UTokyo | ||
2000 | Hideki Shirakawa | 20 August 1936 Tokyo, Japan | Chemistry | "for their discovery and development of conductive polymers."[13] (jointly with American chemist Alan MacDiarmid and physicist Alan J. Heeger) | Tokyo Tech | |||
2001 | Ryōji Noyori | 3 September 1938 Ashiya, Hyōgo, Japan | Chemistry | "for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions."[14] (jointly with American chemist William S. Knowles and shared with American chemist K. Barry Sharpless) | KyotoU | |||
2002 | 19 September 1926 Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan | 12 November 2020 Tokyo, Japan | Physics | "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos."[15] (jointly with American chemist Raymond Davis Jr. and shared with Italian-American Riccardo Giacconi) | UTokyo | |||
Koichi Tanaka | 3 August 1959 Toyama, Japan | Chemistry | "for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules... [and] for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules."[16] (jointly with American analytical chemist John B. Fenn and Swiss chemist Kurt Wüthrich) | Tohokudai | ||||
2008 | Makoto Kobayashi | 7 April 1944 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | Physics | "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."[17] (shared with Japanese-American physicist Yoichiro Nambu) | NagoyaU | |||
Toshihide Maskawa | 7 February 1940 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | 23 July 2021 Kyoto, Japan | NagoyaU | |||||
Osamu Shimomura | 27 August 1928 Fukuchiyama, Kyoto, Japan | 19 October 2018 Nagasaki, Japan | Chemistry | "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP."[18] (jointly with American neurobiologist Martin Chalfie and biochemist Roger Y. Tsien) | Nagasaki | |||
2010 | Ei-ichi Negishi | 14 July 1935 Changchun, Jilin, China | 6 June 2021 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States | Chemistry | "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis."[19] (jointly with American chemist Richard F. Heck) | UTokyo | ||
Akira Suzuki | 12 September 1930 Mukawa, Hokkaido, Japan | Hokudai | ||||||
2012 | Shinya Yamanaka | 4 September 1962 Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan | Physiology or Medicine | "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent."[20] (jointly with British developmental biologist John B. Gurdon) | KobeU | |||
2014 | Isamu Akasaki | 30 January 1929 Chiran, Kagoshima, Japan | 1 April 2021 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | Physics | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."[21] (jointly with Japanese-born American Shuji Nakamura) | KyotoU | ||
Hiroshi Amano | 11 September 1960 Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan | NagoyaU | ||||||
2015 | 12 July 1935 Nirasaki, Yamanashi, Japan | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites."[22] (jointly with Irish-American parasitologist William C. Campbell and shared with Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou) | Nashidai | ||||
Takaaki Kajita | 9 March 1959 Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan | Physics | "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass."[23] (jointly with Canadian astrophysicist Arthur B. McDonald) | SaitamaU | ||||
2016 | Yoshinori Ohsumi | 9 February 1945 Fukuoka, Japan | Physiology or Medicine | "for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy."[24] | UTokyo | |||
2018 | Tasuku Honjo | 27 January 1942 Kyoto, Japan | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation."[25] (jointly with American immunologist James P. Allison) | KyotoU | |||
2019 | Akira Yoshino | 30 January 1948 Osaka, Japan | Chemistry | "for the development of lithium ion batteries."[26] (jointly with American materials scientist John B. Goodenough and British-American chemist M. Stanley Whittingham) | KyotoU | |||
Diaspora | ||||||||
1987 | Charles J. Pedersen | 3 October 1904 Busan, South Korea | 26 October 1989 Salem, New Jersey, United States | Chemistry | "for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity."[27] (jointly with American chemist Donald J. Cram and French chemist Jean-Marie Lehn) | UDayton | ||
2008 | 18 January 1921 Tokyo, Japan | 5 July 2015 Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan | Physics | "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics." (jointly with Japanese physicists Toshihide Maskawa and Makoto Kobayashi) | UTokyo | |||
2014 | Shuji Nakamura | 22 May 1954 Ikata, Ehime, Japan | Physics | "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." (jointly with Japanese physicists Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano) | TokushimaU | |||
2017 | Kazuo Ishiguro | 8 November 1954 Nagasaki, Japan | Literature | "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."[28] | Kent | |||
2021 | Syukuro Manabe | 21 September 1931 Uma, Ehime, Japan | Physics | "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming."[29] (jointly with German climate modeller Klaus Hasselmann and shared with Italian theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi) | UTokyo |
Rank | Alma mater | Laureates | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | ||
2 | 8 | ||
3 | 3 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 | ||
4= | 1 |
Image | Nominee[30] | Born | Died | Years Nominated | Citation | Nominator(s) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physics | |||||||
Kotaro Honda | 24 March 1870 Okazaki, Aichi, Japan | 12 February 1954 Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan | 1932 | "for his invention of KS steel which had 250 oersteds magnetic resistance and developed through rigorous basic research on steel and alloys."[31] | Seiji Nakamura (1869–1960) Japan | ||
Junzo Okubo (?) Japan | |||||||
Hikoo Saegusa (1890–1948) Japan | |||||||
Hideki Yukawa | 23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan | 8 September 1981 Kyoto, Japan | 1940 | "for his research on elementary particles, particularly for the prediction of a new particle called mesons based on a proposed theory on strong and weak nuclear forces."[32] | Hantaro Nagaoka (1865–1950) Japan | ||
Dirk Coster (1889–1950) Netherlands | |||||||
1941 | Toshizo Matsumoto (?) Japan | ||||||
1943, 1944 | Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) France | ||||||
1945 | Maurice de Broglie (1875–1960) France | ||||||
1946 | Jean Thibaud (1901–1960) France | ||||||
1946, 1948 | Gregor Wentzel (1898–1978) Germany | ||||||
1948 | Marcel Schein (1902–1960) United States | ||||||
1949 | Theodor Svedberg et al. (1884–1971) Sweden | ||||||
Otto Stern (1888–1969) et al. Germany | |||||||
1950 | Harold Urey (1893–1981) United States | ||||||
Harald Wergeland (1912–1987) Norway | |||||||
Shin'ichirō Tomonaga | 31 March 1906 Tokyo, Japan | 8 July 1979 Tokyo, Japan | 1951 | "for his fundamental contributions in the development of quantum electrodynamics and for discovering the renormalization method."[33] | Takahiko Yamanouchi (1902–1986) Japan | ||
Samuel Devons (1914–2006) United Kingdom | |||||||
1952 | Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981) Japan | ||||||
1955 | Isao Imai (1914–2004) | ||||||
1956 | Carl D. Anderson (1905–1991) United States | ||||||
Robert Bacher (1905–2004) United States | |||||||
Robert F. Christy (1916–2012) United States | |||||||
1957 | Helmut Hönl (1903–1981) Germany | ||||||
Leonard I. Schiff (1915–1971) United States | |||||||
1960 | Norman F. Ramsey Jr. (1915–2011) United States | ||||||
1962 | A. K. Dutta (?) India | ||||||
1963 | Sidney Drell (1926–016) United States | ||||||
1964 | Hans-Arwed Weidenmüller (born 1933) Germany | ||||||
W. Wessel (?) Germany | |||||||
1965 | Alfred K. Mann (1920–2013) United States | ||||||
Kazuhiko Nishijima | 4 October 1926 Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan | 15 February 2009 Tokyo, Japan | 1960 | "for his contributions to particle physics, particularly on his work on the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula, and the concept of strangeness, which he called the "eta-charge" or "η-charge", after the eta meson."[34] | Marian Günther (1928–?) Poland | ||
1961 | Frederick Seitz (1911–2008) United States | ||||||
1964 | G. Höhler (?) Germany | ||||||
1966 | W. Theis (?) Germany | ||||||
1967 | Sergio DeBenedetti (?) United States | ||||||
F. Cap (?) Austria | |||||||
1968 | Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015) Japan | ||||||
Jun John Sakurai (1933–1982) United States | |||||||
1969 | H. Pierre Noyes (born 1923) France | ||||||
Bunji Sakita (1930–2002) Japan | |||||||
Haakon A. Olsen (1923–2010) Norway | |||||||
1970 | Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981) Japan | ||||||
Tadao Nakano | 1926 Tokyo, Japan | 15 August 2004 | 1961 | "his collaborative work with Nishijima on the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula and quark model."[35] | Frederick Seitz (1911–2008) United States | ||
1970 | Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981) Japan | ||||||
Susumu Okubo | 20 February 1930 Tokyo, Japan | 17 July 2015 Rochester, New York, United States | 1965 | "for the Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula for mesons and baryons in the quark model whichpredicts the relations of masses of the members of SU(3) multiplets in terms of hypercharge and isotopic spin."[36] | Robert Marshak (1916–1992) United States | ||
Yoshio Ōnuki | 7 November 1928 Tochigi, Japan | 1965, 1966 | "for his research on the Sakata model based on the Yamaguchi-Ogawa-Ohnuki symmetry determining that hidden particles are equivalent to each other."[37] | Gordon Sutherland (1907–1980) United Kingdom | |||
Sigenori Miyamoto | 20 October 1931 Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan | 31 December 2017 Japan | 1966 | [38] | Y. Nogami (?) Japan | ||
Shuji Fukui | 19 August 1923 Osaka, Japan | 4 May 2018 Japan | 1966 | "for developing a "discharge chamber" (later called "spark chamber") that observes the tracks of high-energy charged particles."[39] | |||
Leo Esaki | 12 March 1925 Takaida, Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan | 1968 | "for his work in electron tunneling in semiconductor materials which finally led to his invention of the Esaki diode, which exploited that phenomenon."[40] | John Bardeen (1908–1991) United States | |||
Hiroomi Umezawa | 20 September 1924 Kuki, Saitama, Japan | 24 March 1995 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | 1968 | "for his fundamental contributions to quantum field theory and for his work on quantum phenomena in relation to the mind."[41] | Eduardo R. Caianiello (1921–1993) Italy | ||
Jun Kondō | 6 February 1930 Tokyo, Japan | 11 March 2022 Suginami, Tokyo, Japan | 1969 | "for his research on the Kondo effect, a scattering of conduction electrons in a metal due to magnetic impurities, resulting in a characteristic change."[42] | Osmund Dorenfeldt Jenssen (1923–2009) Norway | ||
15 February 1920 Tokyo, Japan | 31 March 1995 Tokyo, Japan | 1970 | "for his works in statistical physics, particularly on non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and the theory of fluctuation phenomena."[43] | Yoshio Yamaguchi (1926–2016) Japan | |||
Shoichi Sakata | 18 January 1911 Tokyo, Japan | 16 December 1970 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | 1970 | "for his research on subatomic particles and the two meson theory: the Sakata model and the Pontecorvo–Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata neutrino mixing matrix."[44] | Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981) Japan | ||
Physiology or Medicine | |||||||
Kitasato Shibasaburō | 29 January 1853 Oguni, Kumamoto, Japan | 13 June 1931 Tokyo, Japan | 1901 | "for his discovery the plague bacillus, independently of Alexandre Yersin."[45] | A. de Bokay (?) | ||
Oscar Loew | 2 April 1844 Marktredwitz, Bavaria, Germany | 26 January 1941 Berlin, Germany | 1912 | "for his discovery of the antibacterial effect of formaldehyde."[46] | Rudolph Emmerich (1856–1914) | ||
23 March 1873 Masuda, Shimane, Japan | 22 November 1938 Tokyo, Japan | 1912 | "for his work on chemotherapy."[47] | Hayazō Itō (1864–1929) Japan | |||
1913 | "for the development of a drug against spirillosis." | Gakutaro Osawa (1863–1920) Japan | |||||
Umetaro Suzuki | 7 April 1874 Makinohara, Shizuoka, Japan | 20 September 1943 Tokyo, Japan | 1914 | "for his work on essential substances in rice and their importance in beri-beri."[48] | Wolfgang Heubner (1877–1957) Germany | ||
Ryukichi Inada | 18 March 1874 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan | 27 February 1950 Tokyo, Japan | 1919 | "for their discovery of the spirochaete of hemorrhagic icterus."[49] [50] | Louis Martin (1864–1946) France | ||
Ido | 1919 | ||||||
Yamagiwa Katsusaburō | 23 February 1863 Ueda, Nagano, Japan | 2 March 1930 Tokyo, Japan | 1925 | "for his work on epithelial tumors."[51] | Harno Hayashi (?) Japan | ||
Matarō Nagayo (1878–1941) Japan | |||||||
C. Yokote (?) Japan | |||||||
Shūzō Kure (1865–1932) Japan | |||||||
1926 | "for his research on experimentally induced tumors." | Ludwig Aschoff (1866–1942) Germany | |||||
1928 | "for being the first to show that malignant tumors, carcinoma and sarcoma, could be produced by application of tar to the tissues of certain mammals." | Alexander A. Maximow (1874–1928) United States | |||||
1936 | "for his work on the production of tumors with chemical substances." | R. Kimura (?) Japan | |||||
Genichi Kato | 11 February 1890 Niimi, Okayama, Japan | 1 May 1979 Niimi, Okayama, Japan | 1928 | "for his investigations in the field of nerve-muscle physiology and establishing a new theory of decrementless conduction of nerve impulses."[52] | Sahachiro Hata (1873–1938) Japan | ||
13 Japanese physicians | |||||||
1935 | "for his work on the isolation of single nerve fibers and muscle fibers and demonstration of the existence of reflex excitatory fibers and reflex inhibitory fibers." | 23 Japanese physicians | |||||
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) | |||||||
1937 | "for his work on the microphysiology of nerve muscle." | Mariano Rafael Castex (1886–1968) Argentina | |||||
Ken Kuré | 27 October 1883 Tokyo, Japan | 27 June 1940 Tokyo, Japan | 1931, 1937 | "for his work on the tonic and trophic innervation of voluntary muscles and spinal parasympathicus, and progressive muscular dystrophy."[53] | M. Itagaki (?) Japan | ||
1933 | Seizaburo Nasu (?) Japan | ||||||
O. Kimura (?) Japan | |||||||
1935 | Tomosaburō Ogata (1883–1973) Japan | ||||||
19 Japanese physicians | |||||||
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) | |||||||
1936 | "for his work on the autonomous innervation of skeletal muscle, progressive muscular dystrophy and spinal parasympaticus." | H. Okabayashi (?) Japan | |||||
1937 | N. Onodera (?) Japan | ||||||
1939 | "for his work on the autonomous innervation of skeleton muscle and progressive muscular dystrophy." | Naomi Kageura (?) Japan | |||||
Takaoki Sasaki | 5 May 1878 Tokyo, Japan | 31 October 1966 Tokyo, Japan | 1935 | "for his work on the production of tumors with chemical substances."[54] | Kenzo Tamura (?) Japan | ||
Kunihiko Hashida (1882–1945) Japan | |||||||
1936 | R. Kimura (?) Japan | ||||||
C. Ogawa (?) Japan | |||||||
1939 | "for his work on experimentally induced liver tumors using chemical means (o-amidoazotoluol)." | S. Tsunoo (?) Japan | |||||
K. Hirai (?) Japan | |||||||
T. Naito (?) Japan | |||||||
Literature | |||||||
Toyohiko Kagawa | 10 July 1888 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan | 23 April 1960 Tokyo, Japan | 1947 | A Shooter at the Sun (1925) Love - The Law of Life (1930) Meditations on the Cross (1935) Songs from the Slums (1935) Brotherhood Economics (1936)[55] | Knut B. Westman (1881–1967) Sweden | ||
1948 | Sven Hedin (1865–1952) Sweden | ||||||
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki | 24 July 1886 Tokyo, Japan | 30 July 1965 Yugawara, Kanagawa, Japan | 1958 | Naomi (1925) Some Prefer Nettles (1929) Quicksand (1928–1930) Arrowroot (1931) In Praise of Shadows (1933) The Makioka Sisters (1943–48) The Key (1956) (1957) Diary of a Mad Old Man (1961)[56] | Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) United States | ||
1960 | Sigfrid Siwertz (1882–1970) Sweden | ||||||
1961 | The Japanese Authors' Union | ||||||
1962 | Howard Hibbett (1920–2019) United States | ||||||
1963 | Donald Keene (1922–2019) United States | ||||||
1964, 1965 | Harry Martinson (1904–1978) Sweden | ||||||
Junzaburō Nishiwaki | 20 January 1894 Ojiya, Niigata, Japan | 5 June 1982 Ojiya, Niigata, Japan | 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 | Spectrum (1925) Ambarvalia (1933) No Traveler Returns (1947) Modern Fables (1953)[57] [58] | Naoshirō Tsuji (1899–1979) Japan | ||
1961 | The Japanese Authors' Union | ||||||
1963 | Japan Academy | ||||||
1968 | |||||||
Yasunari Kawabata | 11 June 1899 Osaka, Japan | 16 April 1972 Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan | 1961, 1963 | Snow Country (1948) Thousand Cranes (1952) The Master of Go (1954) The Sound of the Mountain (1954) The House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961) The Old Capital (1962) Dandelions (1972)[59] | Henry Olsson (1896–1985) Sweden | ||
1962 | The Japanese P.E.N. Club | ||||||
1964, 1965 | Harry Martinson (1904–1978) Sweden | ||||||
1966 | Karl Ragnar Gierow (1904–1982) Sweden | ||||||
1967 | Howard Hibbett (1920–2019) United States | ||||||
1968 | Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) Sweden | ||||||
Yukio Mishima | 14 January 1925 Tokyo, Japan | 25 November 1970 Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan | 1963 | Confessions of a Mask (1949) The Sound of Waves (1954) The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956) The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1963) Sun and Steel (1968) The Sea of Fertility (1969–1971)[60] | Johannes Rahder (1898–1988) Netherlands | ||
1964, 1965, 1967 | Harry Martinson (1904–1978) Sweden | ||||||
1968 | Henry Olsson (1896–1985) Sweden | ||||||
Yasushi Inoue | 6 May 1907 Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan | 29 January 1991 Tokyo, Japan | 1969 | The Bullfight (1949) Hyōheki (1956) The Roof Tile of Tempyō (1957) Tun-huang (1959)[61] | Erich Ruprecht (1906–1997) Germany | ||
Sei Itō (posthumously nominated) | 16 January 1905 Matsumae, Hokkaido, Japan | 15 November 1969 Tokyo, Japan | 1970 | Snow-lit Road (1926) Streets of Fiendish Ghosts (1937) Senkichi Narumi (1948) History of Japanese Literary Circles (1955–1969)[62] | Kōjirō Serizawa (1897–1993) Japan | ||
Tatsuzō Ishikawa | 2 July 1905 Yokote, Akita, Japan | 31 January 1985 Tokyo, Japan | 1970 | Sōbō (1935) Soldiers Alive (1945) Kinkanshoku (1966)[63] | |||
Peace | |||||||
Nagao Ariga | 13 November 1860 Osaka, Japan | 17 May 1921 Tokyo, Japan | 1909 | No motivation given.[64] | V. H. Hilty (?) Switzerland | ||
Shibusawa Eiichi | 16 March 1840 Fukaya, Saitama, Japan | 11 November 1931 Tokyo, Japan | 1926 | "for his involvement in almost every enterprise associated with Japanese industrial development and worked to improve the relations between the United States and Japan concerning the legal status of Japanese workers in California."[65] | Tasuku Harada (1863–1940) Japan | ||
Katō Takaaki (1860–1926) Japan | |||||||
1927 | |||||||
Toyohiko Kagawa | 10 July 1888 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan | 23 April 1960 Tokyo, Japan | 1954 | "for his work for reconciliation among nations." | Tetsu Katayama (1887–1978) | ||
Emily Greene Balch (1867–1961) United States | |||||||
1955 | 5 members of the Norwegian Storting | ||||||
1956 | 7 members of the Norwegian Storting | ||||||
1960 | No motivation given. | Jōtarō Kawakami (1889–1965) Japan | |||||
Motojirō Sugiyama (1885–1964) Japan | |||||||
Tokutarō Kitamura (1886–1968) Japan | |||||||
Nobusuke Kishi | 13 November 1896 Tabuse, Yamaguchi, Japan | 7 August 1987 Tokyo, Japan | 1960 | "for his work for disarmament and banning of nuclear weapons."[66] | Spessard Holland (1892–1971) United States | ||
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki | 18 October 1870 Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan | 12 July 1966 Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan | 1963 | "for his high cultural achievements."[67] | Hideo Kishimoti (1903–1964) Japan | ||
22 September 1878 Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan | 20 October 1967 Tokyo, Japan | 1965 | "for his efforts to prevent the Pacific War although it was in vain, and his devotion to the restoration of peace."[68] | Eisaku Satō (1901–1975) Japan | |||
3 Finnish nominators | |||||||
1966 | "for his efforts to prevent the Pacific War, and for his efforts to bring restoration of peace." | Kisaburo Yokota (1896–1993) Japan | |||||
1967 | No motivation given. | Shigeru Kuriyama (1886–1971) Japan | |||||
3 members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration | |||||||
Hideki Yukawa | 23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan | 8 September 1981 Kyoto, Japan | 1966 | No motivation given | Hideo Kaneko (1934–2013) Japan | ||
Selhataro Salsadia (?) Japan | |||||||
Yoshio Koya | 1890 Japan | 1974 Japan | 1968 | "for his many outstanding services to humanity and for his pioneering efforts as a world-renowned gynecologist that the birth rate and rate of induced abortions in Japan have declined."[69] | Martin Allwood (1916–1999) Sweden | ||
Kaoru Hatoyama | 21 November 1888 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan | 15 August 1982 Tokyo, Japan | 1969 | "for her contribution to the reopening of diplomatic relations between Japan and the U.S.S.R., and Japan's entry into the United Nations, and for her contribution to the Yuai ("Fraternity") Movement and for her achievements as an educator."[70] | members of the Japanese Government and Parliament |
Yoji Totsuka was leading the experiment that the first definitive evidence for neutrino oscillations was measured, via a high-statistics, high-precision measurement of the atmospheric neutrino flux. His Super-K group also confirmed, along with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), the solution to the solar neutrino problem. The Nobel Prize winning physicist Masatoshi Koshiba was told that if Totsuka could extend his lifespan by eighteen months, he would receive the physics prize.[73]
Seiji Shinkai invented the first molecular machine in 1979,[78] but he was not awarded the 2016 chemistry prize. On the contrary, Ben Feringa, one of the 2016 Nobel laureates, made a special trip to Japan in the 1980s to ask Shinkai for advice in the research.[79]
Katsusaburō Yamagiwa and his student Kōichi Ichikawa successfully induced squamous cell carcinoma by painting crude coal tar on the inner surface of rabbits' ears. Yamagiwa's work has become the primary basis for research of cause of cancer.[82] However, Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 medicine prize because of his incorrect Spiroptera carcinoma theory, while the Yamagiwa group was snubbed by Nobel Committee. In 1966, the former committee member Folke Henschen claimed "I was strongly advocate Dr. Yamagiwa deserve the Nobel Prize, but unfortunate it did not realize".[83] In 2010, the Encyclopædia Britannica 's guide to Nobel Prizes in cancer research mentions Yamagiwa's work as a milestone without mentioning Fibiger.[84]
Umetaro Suzuki completed the first vitamin complex was isolated in 1910.[85] When the article was translated into German, the translation failed to state that it was a newly discovered nutrient, a claim made in the original Japanese article, and hence his discovery failed to gain publicity. Because of this, he was not awarded the 1929 medicine prize.
Satoshi Mizutani[86] and Howard Martin Temin jointly discovered that the Rous sarcoma virus particle contained the enzyme reverse transcriptase, and Mizutani was solely responsible for the original conception and design of the novel experiment that confirmed Temin's provirus hypothesis.[87] However, Mizutani was not awarded the 1975 medicine prize along with Temin.
As of 2015, there have been seven Japanese who have received the Lasker Award and twelve Japanese who have received the Canada Gairdner International Award, but only three Japanese who have received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Masahiko Aoki, seen as the most likely candidate to become the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for economics, for developing the Institutional Comparative Analysis, he taught at Kyoto University and Stanford University. He died in Palo Alto, California, in July, 2015. He was 77.