List of Japanese Nobel laureates and nominees

The Japanese Nobel Prize Laureate (2010) Akira Suzuki and Ei-ichi Negishi

Since 1949, there have been 32 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. Of Japanese winners, twelve have been physicists, nine chemists, three for literature, six for physiology or medicine, and two for efforts towards peace.

Summary

Number of Nobel laureates by category

Category	Japanese citizens/ organizations	Others born as Japanese citizens	Total	Others born in Japanese colonies	Remarks
Physics	9	3	12	-	Yoichiro Nambu, Shuji Nakamura, and Syukuro Manabe became American citizens.
Chemistry	9	-	9	2	Charles J. Pedersen has half Japanese ancestry (listed under the Diaspora), but Yuan T. Lee is not.
Physiology or Medicine	6	-	6	-
Literature	2	1	3	-	Kazuo Ishiguro became a British citizen in 1983.
Peace	2	-	2	-
Total	28	4	32	2	Japanese media usually count 31 laureates (excluding Kazuo Ishiguro).

Laureates

Year	Portrait	Laureate (birth/death)	Field	Rational	Undergraduate alma mater
Citizens
1949		Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981)	Physics	"for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces."	KyotoU
1965		Shin'ichirō Tomonaga (1906–1979)	Physics	"for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles." (jointly with American theoretical physicists Julian Schwinger and Richard Feynman)	KyotoU
1968		Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)	Literature	"for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind."	UTokyo
1973		Leo Esaki (1925–)	Physics	"for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively." (jointly with Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Giaever and shared with Welsh theoretical physicist Brian David Josephson)	UTokyo
1974		Eisaku Satō (1901–1975)	Peace	"for his contribution to stabilize conditions in the Pacific rim area and for signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." (shared with Irish politician Seán MacBride)	UTokyo
1981		Kenichi Fukui (1918–1998)	Chemistry	"for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions." (jointly with Polish-American theoretical chemist Roald Hoffmann)	KyotoU
1987		Susumu Tonegawa (1939–2026)	Physiology or Medicine	"for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity."	KyotoU
1994		Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023)	Literature	"who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."	UTokyo
2000		Hideki Shirakawa (1936–)	Chemistry	"for their discovery and development of conductive polymers." (jointly with American chemist Alan MacDiarmid and physicist Alan J. Heeger)	Tokyo Tech
2001		Ryōji Noyori (1938–)	Chemistry	"for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions." (jointly with American chemist William S. Knowles and shared with American chemist K. Barry Sharpless)	KyotoU
2002		Masatoshi Koshiba (1926–2020)	Physics	"for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos." (jointly with American chemist Raymond Davis Jr. and shared with Italian-American Riccardo Giacconi)	UTokyo
		Koichi Tanaka (1959–)	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." (jointly with American analytical chemist John B. Fenn and Swiss chemist Kurt Wüthrich)	Tohokudai
2008		Makoto Kobayashi (1944–)	Physics	"for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature." (shared with Japanese-American physicist Yoichiro Nambu)	NagoyaU
		Toshihide Maskawa (1940–2021)			NagoyaU
		Osamu Shimomura (1928–2018)	Chemistry	"for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP." (jointly with American neurobiologist Martin Chalfie and biochemist Roger Y. Tsien)	Nagasaki
2010		Ei-ichi Negishi (1935–2021)	Chemistry	"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis." (jointly with American chemist Richard F. Heck)	UTokyo
		Akira Suzuki (1930–)			Hokudai
2012		Shinya Yamanaka (1962–)	Physiology or Medicine	"for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent." (jointly with British developmental biologist John B. Gurdon)	KobeU
2014		Isamu Akasaki (1929–2021)	Physics	"for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." (jointly with Japanese-born American Shuji Nakamura)	KyotoU
		Hiroshi Amano (1960–)			NagoyaU
2015		Satoshi Ōmura (1935–)	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites." (jointly with Irish-American parasitologist William C. Campbell and shared with Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou)	Nashidai
		Takaaki Kajita (1959–)	Physics	"for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass." (jointly with Canadian astrophysicist Arthur B. McDonald)	SaitamaU
2016		Yoshinori Ohsumi (1945–)	Physiology or Medicine	"for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy."	UTokyo
2018		Tasuku Honjo (1942–)	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation." (jointly with American immunologist James P. Allison)	KyotoU
2019		Akira Yoshino (1948–)	Chemistry	"for the development of lithium ion batteries." (jointly with American materials scientist John B. Goodenough and British-American chemist M. Stanley Whittingham)	KyotoU
2024		Nihon Hidankyo	Peace	"for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again."
2025		Shimon Sakaguchi (1951–)	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance." (jointly with American immunologists Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell)	KyotoU
		Susumu Kitagawa (1951–)	Chemistry	"for the development of metal-organic frameworkse." (jointly with American materials scientist Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi)	KyotoU
Diaspora
1987		Charles J. Pedersen (1904–1989)	Chemistry	"for their development and use of molecules with structure-specific interactions of high selectivity." (jointly with American chemist Donald J. Cram and French chemist Jean-Marie Lehn)	UDayton
2008		Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015)	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 (1954–)	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 (1954–)	Literature	"who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."	Kent
2021		Syukuro Manabe (1931–)	Physics	"for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming." (jointly with German climate modeller Klaus Hasselmann and shared with Italian theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi)	UTokyo

List by alma mater

As of 2025, the list of Nobel Prize winners of Japanese nationality and Japanese ancestry by undergraduate alma mater.

Logo	Institution	Country	Number of laureates
	Kyoto University	Japan	10 (1949, 1995, 1981, 1987, 2001, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2025) Hideki Yukawa, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Kenichi Fukui, Susumu Tonegawa, Ryōji Noyori, Isamu Akasaki, Tasuku Honjo, Akira Yoshino, Shimon Sakaguchi, Susumu Kitagawa
	The University of Tokyo	Japan	9 (1968, 1973, 1974, 1994, 2002, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2021) Yasunari Kawabata, Leo Esaki, Eisaku Satō, Kenzaburō Ōe, Masatoshi Koshiba, Yoichiro Nambu, Ei-ichi Negishi, Yoshinori Ohsumi, Syukuro Manabe
	Nagoya University	Japan	3 (2008, 2014) Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, Hiroshi Amano
	Hokkaido University	Japan	1 (2010) Akira Suzuki
	Kobe University	Japan	1 (2012) Shinya Yamanaka
	Nagasaki University	Japan	1 (2008) Osamu Shimomura
	Saitama University	Japan	1 (2015) Takaaki Kajita
	Tohoku University	Japan	1 (2002) Koichi Tanaka
	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	1 (2000) Hideki Shirakawa
	Tokushima University	Japan	1 (2014) Shuji Nakamura
	University of Dayton	United States	1 (1987) Charles J. Pedersen
	University of Kent	United Kingdom	1 (2017) Kazuo Ishiguro
	University of Yamanashi	Japan	1 (2015) Satoshi Omura

Number of People by Degree Granting Institutions

By degree (bachelor, master, doctorate) awarded, the number of Japanese alumni awarded by each university is as follows (including those with Japanese nationality and those of Japanese origin; as of October 9, 2019):

• Kyoto University 12
• The University of Tokyo 11
• Nagoya University 5
• Osaka University 2

Only one Japanese degree holder from the following universities has won the Nobel Prize: Hokkaido University, Kobe University, Nagasaki University, Osaka City University, Saitama University, Tohoku University, Tokushima University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University of Science, University of East Anglia, University of California, San Diego, University of Kent, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, University of Yamanashi

Nominees

Picture	Name	Born	Died	Years Nominated	Notes
Physiology or Medicine
	Kitasato Shibasaburō	29 January 1853 Oguni, Kumamoto, Japan	13 June 1931 Tokyo, Japan	1901	Nominated by Árpád Bókay (1856–1919).
	Oscar Loew*	2 April 1844 Marktredwitz, Bavaria, Germany	26 January 1941 Berlin, Germany	1912	Nominated by Rudolph Emmerich (1856–1914).
	Sahachirō Hata	23 March 1873 Masuda, Shimane, Japan	22 November 1938 Tokyo, Japan	1912	Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry too.
	Hideyo Noguchi	17 April 1866 Inawashiro, Fukushima, Japan	2 May 1927 Accra, Ghana	1913, 1914, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928
	Umetaro Suzuki	7 April 1874 Makinohara, Shizuoka, Japan	20 September 1943 Tokyo, Japan	1914	Nominated by Wolfgang Heubner (1877–1957) and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
	Yutaka Ido	1881 Okayama, Japan	1919 Tokyo, Japan	1919	Nominated jointly with Jules Bordet (1870–1961) and Ryukichi Inada (1874–1950) by Louis Martin (1864–1946).
	Ryukichi Inada	18 March 1874 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	27 February 1950 Tokyo, Japan	1919, 1923
	Yamagiwa Katsusaburō	23 February 1863 Ueda, Nagano, Japan	2 March 1930 Tokyo, Japan	1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1936
	Gen'ichi Katō	11 February 1890 Niimi, Okayama, Japan	1 May 1979 Niimi, Okayama, Japan	1928, 1935, 1937, 1944
	Otto Schöbl*	27 August 1877 Zditz, Beroun, Czechia	13 October 1938 Tokyo, Japan	1929
	Kure Ken	27 October 1883 Tokyo, Japan	27 June 1940 Tokyo, Japan	1931, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939
	Takaoki Sasaki	5 May 1878 Tokyo, Japan	31 October 1966 Tokyo, Japan	1935, 1936, 1939, 1941
	Koichi Ichikawa	6 April 1888 Sakuragawa, Ibaraki, Japan	4 September 1948 Japan	1936	Nominated jointly with Takaoki Sasaki (1878–1966) and Yamagiwa Katsusaburō (1863–1930) by Ren Kimura (1896–1982).
	Kuno Yasu	30 March 1882 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	30 December 1977 Japan	1936, 1938, 1953
	Bun'ichi Hasama	1898 Ōita, Japan	1946 Japan	1938	Nominated jointly with Alexander Gurwitsch (1874–1954) and Alexander Ludwig von Muralt (1903–1990) by Albrecht Bethe (1872–1954).
	Makoto Ishihara	18 May 1879 Itami, Hyōgo, Japan	11 December 1938 Japan	1939	Nominated posthumously by Daize Ogata (?).
	Ichiji Tasaki	10 October 1910 Fukushima, Japan	4 January 2009 Bethesda, Maryland, United States	1944	Nominated jointly with Gen'ichi Katō (1890–1979) by Alexander Ludwig von Muralt (1903–1990).
	Toshiyuki Kurotsu	12 November 1898 Kyoto, Japan	16 November 1992 Japan	1952	Nominated by Naosaburo Yoshii (1910–1997).
	Katsunuma Seizō	28 August 1886 Shizuoka, Japan	9 November 1963 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	1953	Nominated by Naka Kikkawa (1888–?).
	Furuhata Tanemoto	15 June 1891 Mie Prefecture, Japan	6 May 1975 Tokyo, Japan	1954, 1956
	Kōichi Motokawa	17 January 1903 Ishikawa, Japan	3 February 1971 Sendai, Miyagi, Japan	1955
	Tomizo Yoshida	10 February 1903 Asakawa, Fukushima, Japan	27 April 1973 Tokyo, Japan	1955,1956
	Ogata Tomosaburō	31 January 1883 Tokyo, Japan	25 August 1973 Japan	1956	Nominated by A. Kimara (?).
Physics
	Kristian Birkeland*	13 December 1867 Oslo, Norway	15 June 1917 Tokyo, Japan	1915, 1916, 1917	Nominated jointly with Carl Størmer (1874–1957) each time and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry too.
	Kotaro Honda	23 February 1870 Okazaki, Aichi, Japan	12 February 1954 Tokyo, Japan	1932
	Hideki Yukawa	23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan	8 September 1981 Kyoto, Japan	1940, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950	Awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics and nominated for Nobel Peace Prize too
	Shin'ichirō Tomonaga	31 March 1906 Tokyo, Japan	8 July 1979 Tokyo, Japan	1951, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965	Shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger.
	Kazuhiko Nishijima	4 October 1926 Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan	15 February 2009 Tokyo, Japan	1960, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970
	Tadao Nakano	1926 Tokyo, Japan	15 August 2004 Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan	1961, 1970	Nominated jointly with Kazuhiko Nishijima (1926–2009) each time.
	Susumu Okubo	2 March 1930 Tokyo, Japan	17 July 2015 Rochester, New York, United States	1965	Nominated by Robert Marshak (1916–1992).
	Yoshio Ōnuki	7 November 1928 Tochigi, Japan	(aged 97)	1965, 1966	Nominated jointly with Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2013) and Yuval Ne'eman (1925–2006) by Gordon Sutherland (1907–1980).
	Shuji Fukui	19 August 1923 Osaka, Japan	4 May 2018 Japan	1966	Nominated jointly with Jack Warren Keuffel (1919–1974), Thomas Edwin Cranshaw (1922–2016) and Johannes Frederik de Beer (1933–2021) by Yozo Nogami (1918–2008).
	Sigenori Miyamoto	20 October 1931 Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan	31 December 2017 Japan	1966
	Leo Esaki	12 March 1925 Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Japan	(aged 101)	1968, 1971, 1972, 1973	Shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson.
	Hiroomi Umezawa	20 September 1924 Kurihashi, Saitama, Japan	24 March 1995 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	1968	Nominated by Eduardo Renato Caianiello (1921–1993) and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry too.
	Jun Kondō	6 February 1930 Tokyo, Japan	11 March 2022 Suginami, Japan	1969, 1972, 1974
	Shoichi Sakata	18 January 1911 Tokyo, Japan	16 October 1970 Nagoya, Japan	1970	Nominated jointly with Tadao Nakano (1926–2004) and Kazuhiko Nishijima (1926–2009) by Hideki Yukawa (1907–1981).
	Ryogo Kubo	15 February 1920 Tokyo, Japan	31 March 1995 Japan	1970, 1973, 1974, 1975	Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry too.
	Yoichiro Nambu	18 January 1921 Tokyo, Japan	5 July 2015 Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan	1971, 1975	Shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa
	Chushiro Hayashi	25 July 1920 Kyoto, Japan	28 February 2010 Kyoto, Japan	1972	Nominated by Hiroshi Maeda (1938–2021).
Chemistry
	Kristian Birkeland*	13 December 1867 Oslo, Norway	15 June 1917 Tokyo, Japan	1907, 1909, 1912, 1913	Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.
	Sahachirō Hata	23 March 1873 Masuda, Shimane, Japan	22 November 1938 Tokyo, Japan	1911	Nominated jointly with Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) by Emil Theodor Kocher (1841–1917) and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine too.
	Umetaro Suzuki	7 April 1874 Makinohara, Shizuoka, Japan	20 September 1943 Tokyo, Japan	1927, 1936	Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine too.
	Yasuhiko Asahina	16 April 1881 Tokyo, Japan	30 June 1975 Tokyo, Japan	1951, 1952
	Yoshiyuki Toyama	6 September 1896 Tokyo, Japan	12 February 1980 Tokyo, Japan	1958
	Gerhard Schramm*	27 June 1910 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan	3 February 1969 Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968
	San'ichirō Mizushima	21 March 1899 Tokyo, Japan	3 August 1983 Tokyo, Japan	1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971
	Eiji Ochiai	26 June 1898 Urawa, Saitama, Japan	4 November 1974 Japan	1968	Nominated by Shuzo Shibata (1924–).
	Yusuke Sumiki	10 February 1901 Niigata, Japan	11 September 1974 Tokyo, Japan	1968	Nominated jointly with Brian Edward Cross (1923–) by Kozo Hirota (?).
	Teijirō Yabuta	16 December 1888 Ōtsu, Shiga, Japan	20 July 1977 Tokyo, Japan	1968
	Tetsuo Nozoe	16 May 1902 Sendai, Miyagi, Japan	4 April 1996 Tokyo, Japan	1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974
	Setsuro Ebashi	31 August 1922 Tokyo, Japan	17 July 2006 Okazaki, Aichi, Japan	1971	Nominated by Mohamad Khalil Salah (?).
	Osamu Hayaishi	8 January 1920 Stockton, California, United States	17 December 2015 Kyoto, Japan	1972, 1973, 1974
	Kenzi Tamaru	2 November 1923 Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan	22 July 2020 United States	1973
	Hiroomi Umezawa	20 September 1924 Kurihashi, Saitama, Japan	24 March 1995 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	1973	Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.
	Ryogo Kubo	15 February 1920 Tokyo, Japan	31 March 1995 Japan	1974	Nominated jointly with Nikolay Bogolyubov (1909–1992) and Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) by Nikolay Emanuel (1915-1984) and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics too.
	Koichi Shimoda	5 October 1920 Urawa, Saitama, Japan	29 May 2023 Tokyo, Japan	1975
Literature
	Toyohiko Kagawa	10 July 1888 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan	23 April 1960 Tokyo, Japan	1947, 1948	Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize too.
	Jun'ichirō Tanizaki	24 July 1886 Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan	30 July 1965 Yugawara, Kanagawa, Japan	1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
	Junzaburō Nishiwaki	20 January 1894 Ojiya, Niigata, Japan	5 June 1982 Ojiya, Niigata, Japan	1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968
	Yasunari Kawabata	14 June 1899 Osaka, Japan	16 April 1972 Kanagawa, Japan	1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968	Awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature.
	Yukio Mishima	14 January 1925 Tokyo, Japan	25 November 1970 Tokyo, Japan	1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968
	Yasushi Inoue	6 May 1907 Asahikawa, Kamikawa, Japan	29 January 1991 Tokyo, Japan	1969	Nominated by Erich Ruprecht (1906–1997).
	Sei Itō	16 January 1905 Otaru, Japan	15 November 1969 Tokyo, Japan	1970	Nominated jointly (Itō – posthumously) by Serizawa Kōjirō (1897–1993).
	Tatsuzō Ishikawa	2 July 1905 Yokote, Akita, Japan	31 January 1985 Tokyo, Japan
	Kenzaburō Ōe	31 January 1935 Uchiko, Ehime, Japan	3 March 2023 Tokyo, Japan	1974, 1975	Awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature.
	Masuji Ibuse	15 February 1898 Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan	20 July 1993 Suginami, Tokyo, Japan	1975	Nominated by Michel Cadot (1926–2022).
	Kōbō Abe	7 March 1924 Kita, Tokyo, Japan	22 January 1993 Tokyo, Japan	1984, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1993
	Shūsaku Endō	27 March 1923 Toshima, Tokyo, Japan	29 September 1996 Tokyo, Japan	1994
Peace
	Nagao Ariga	13 November 1860 Osaka, Japan	17 May 1921 Tokyo, Japan	1909	Nominated by Carl Hilty (1833–1909).
	Shibusawa Eiichi	16 March 1840 Fukaya, Saitama, Japan	11 November 1931 Tokyo, Japan	1926, 1927
	Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi	16 November 1894 Tokyo, Japan	27 July 1972 Schruns, Vorarlberg, Austria	1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972
	Toyohiko Kagawa	10 July 1888 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan	23 April 1960 Tokyo, Japan	1947, 1948	Nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature too.
	Nobusuke Kishi	13 November 1896 Tabuse, Yamaguchi, Japan	7 August 1987 Tokyo, Japan	1960	Nominated by Spessard Holland (1892–1971). Prime Minister of Japan (1957–1960)
	Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki	18 October 1870 Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan	12 July 1966 Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan	1963	Nominated by Hideo Kishimoti (1903–1964).
	Shigeru Yoshida	22 September 1878 Surugadai, Tokyo, Japan	20 October 1967 Oiso, Kanagawa, Japan	1965, 1966, 1967	Prime Minister of Japan (1948–1954)
	Hideki Yukawa	23 January 1907 Tokyo, Japan	8 September 1981 Kyoto, Japan	1966	Awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics.
	Yoshio Koya	1890 Japan	1974 Japan	1968	Nominated by Martin Allwood (1916–1999).
	Kaoru Hatoyama	21 November 1888 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan	15 August 1982 Tokyo, Japan	1969
	Eisaku Satō	27 March 1901 Tabuse, Yamaguchi, Japan	3 June 1975 Minato, Tokyo, Japan	1974	Shared the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize with Seán MacBride. Prime Minister of Japan (1964–1972)
	Tsūsai Sugawara	16 February 1894 Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan	13 June 1981 Japan	1976	Nominated by Masayuki Fujio (1917–2006).
	Nihon Hidankyō	August 1956 Shibadaimon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan		1985, 1994, 2005, 2017, 2018, 2024	Awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
	Hibakusha of Japan	1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan		2015, 2022
	Moon Ik-hwan*	2 June 1918 Longjing, Jilin, China	18 January 1994 Fukuoka, Japan	1992	Nominated by the American Friends Service Committee.
	Shinichi Suzuki	17 October 1898 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	26 January 1998 Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan	1993
	Iri Maruki	20 June 1901 Asakita-ku, Hiroshima, Japan	19 October 1995 Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan	1995	Nominated jointly by Lawrence Wittner (1941–).
	Toshi Akamatsu-Maruki	11 February 1912 Chippubetsu, Hokkaido, Japan	13 January 2000 Moroyama, Saitama, Japan	1995
	Shozo Shimamoto	22 January 1928 Osaka, Japan	25 January 2013 Osaka, Japan	1996	Nominated by Bern Porter (1911–2004).
	Saburō Ienaga	3 September 1913 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	29 November 2002 Tokyo, Japan	1999, 2001
	Katsuko Nomura	26 November 1910 Kyoto, Japan	21 August 2010 Japan	2005	Nominated jointly by Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (1941–) as part of the 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe.
	Kumiko Yokoi	1944 Nagoya, Aichi, Japan	14 January 2021 Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan	2005
	Song Sin-do*	24 November 1922 Chūseinan, South Korea	16 December 2017 Tokyo, Japan	2005
	Suzuyo Takazato	1940 Taiwan	(aged 86)	2005
	Yuki Ando	Japan	—N/a	2005
	Yukika Sohma	26 January 1912 Tokyo, Japan	8 November 2008 Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan	2005
	Yuri Kochiyama	19 May 1921 San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, United States	1 June 2014 Berkeley, California, United States	2005
	Yoshioka Tatsuya	1960 Osaka, Japan	(aged 66)	2008
	Peace Boat	September 1983 Tokyo, Japan		2008
	Mayors for Peace	June 1982 Hiroshima, Japan		2008, 2011
	Article 9 Association	2004 Tokyo, Japan		2014, 2015, 2021
	Setsuko Thurlow	3 January 1932 Hiroshima, Japan	(aged 94)	2015
	Masahide Ōta	12 June 1925 Kumejima, Okinawa, Japan	12 June 2017 Naha, Okinawa, Japan	2017
	Onodera Toshitaka	1941 Japan	(aged 85)	2017
	Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Messengers	1998 Nyon, Vaud, Switzerland		2019

Notes

Physics

Shoichi Sakata reported the "Sakata model" - a model of hadrons in 1956, that inspired Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig's quark model. Moreover, Kazuhiko Nishijima and Tadao Nakano originally given the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula in 1953. However, 1969 physics prize was only awarded to Murray Gell-Mann. Afterward, Ivar Waller, the member of Nobel Committee for Physics was sorry that Sakata had not received a physics prize.

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.

Chemistry

Eiji Osawa prediction of the C₆₀ molecule at Hokkaido University in 1970. He noticed that the structure of a corannulene molecule was a subset of an Association football shape, and he hypothesised that a full ball shape could also exist. Japanese scientific journals reported his idea, but it did not reach Europe or the Americas. Because of this, he was not awarded the 1996 chemistry prize.

Seiji Shinkai invented the first molecular machine in 1979, 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.

Physiology or Medicine

Kitasato Shibasaburō and Emil von Behring working together in Berlin in 1890 announced the discovery of diphtheria antitoxin serum; Von Behring was awarded the 1901 prize because of this work, but Kitasato was not. Meanwhile, Hideyo Noguchi and Sahachiro Hata, those who missed out on the early Nobel Prize for many times.

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. 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". In 2010, the Encyclopædia Britannica 's guide to Nobel Prizes in cancer research mentions Yamagiwa's work as a milestone without mentioning Fibiger.

Umetaro Suzuki completed the first vitamin complex was isolated in 1910. 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 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. 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.

Others

A number of important Japanese native scientists were not nominated for early Nobel Prizes, such as Yasuhiko Kojima and Yasuichi Nagano (jointly discovered Interferon), Jōkichi Takamine (first isolated epinephrine), Kiyoshi Shiga (discovered Shigella dysenteriae), Tomisaku Kawasaki (Kawasaki disease is named after him), and Hakaru Hashimoto. After World War II, Reiji Okazaki and his wife Tsuneko were known for describing the role of Okazaki fragments, but he died of leukemia (sequelae of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima) in 1975 at the age of 44.

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.

See also

• List of Japanese people
• List of Nobel laureates
• List of Asian Nobel laureates
• List of Nobel laureates affiliated with the University of Tokyo
• List of Nobel laureates affiliated with Kyoto University
• List of Nobel laureates by country

External links

• All Nobel Laureates from the Nobel Foundation
• Japanese Nobel Laureates — Kyoto University Archived 9 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine(in English)
• 日本人のノーベル賞受賞者一覧 — 京都大学 Archived 2 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine(in Japanese)
• Nominees from JAPAN - Nomination Database(in English)