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10 of the Most Famous Japanese Scientists

Japan is a country in the continent of Asia. The country has a population of about 125.8 million people. It also has approximately 780 universities, with 80% being private, and many colleges.

This proves that the country has invested in formal education. It has many learned people from the low level to the highest level of education.

Among the citizens of Japan, there are a good number of scientists.  These scientists have great scientific discoveries.  Some of these scientists are still alive and its important to recognize their works.

The scientists of Japan have led to the growth of scientific fields in the world in one way or another.

Some of the developments and inventions were done by these scientists. Of important to note are the video game development, molecular identification of cytokines.

Additionally, the discovery of molecular identification of cytokines, computer programing in the Ruby programming language are among these inventions. We cannot forget to mention the invention of blue, white, and green LEDs, among other things.

Scientists have been receiving rewards in appreciation for their great works. The major reward that is awarded is the Nobel Prize in various fields.

A good number of Japanese scientists have joint citizenship. They have both Japanese and United States of America citizenship. This is because their  developments and contributions were based in United States.

1. Shigeru Miyamoto

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Miyamoto was born on the 16^th of November, 1952 in Sonobe, Kyoto. His works includes video game designer, producer, and game director at Nintendo.

Of course he is married to Yasuko Miyamoto. Together they have a child called Kenshi Miyamoto.

The fame he gained was by helping save the entire gaming industry from total collapse. He is the creator of the most acclaimed and best-selling games of all time like the Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and others

2. Tasuku Honjo

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He was born on the 27^th of January, 1942 in Kyoto, Japan. He is a Japanese physician-scientist and immunologist. He is a Ph.D. holder from Kyoto University. He is famous for his identification of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1).

Also, he is known for his molecular identification of cytokines. Moreso, discovery of activation-induced cytidine deaminase that is essential for class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation.

Similarly, he has been awarded several rewards including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Other awards include Kyoto Prize, Tang Prize, Order of Culture.  In addition to that he has other awards like Albert Prize, Koch Prize, and Imperial Prize. One of his notable students is Shizuo Akira.

3. Yoshinori Ohsumi

Yoshinori Ohsumi was born on the 9^th of February, 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He is a Japanese cell biologist specializing in autophagy. The process used by cells to destroy and recycle cellular components. He is married to Mariko Osumi.

The fame gained was for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. The natural conserved degradation of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components.

In addition, the process is complete through a lysosome-dependent regulated mechanism. This he achieved by fasting, which activates autophagy and helps slow down the aging process, and has a positive impact on cell renewal.

He was been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2016

4. Yukihiro Matsumoto

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Matsumoto was born on the 14^th of April, 1965 in Osaka, Japan. He is a Japanese computer scientist and software programmer. He is a family man with a wife and four children.

Being famous did not come on an easy walk. His achievement as a chief designer of the Ruby Programming language contributed to this fame.

However, the climax of this was the  original reference implementation. The famous Matz’s Ruby Interpreter (MRI).

Ruby is mainly used for building web applications. Correspondingly, the data analysis, prototyping, and proof of concepts.

5. Shinya Yamanaka

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 Yamanaka was born on the 4^th of September, 1962 in Higashiosaka Osaka, Japan. He is a Japanese stem cell researcher, who serves as the director Center for iPS Cell Research and Applications.

His works include the discovery of how to transform ordinary adult skin cells into cells. Likewise, embryonic stem cells, are capable of developing into any cell in the human body.

For this, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012.

6. Shuji Nakamura

He was born on the 22^nd of May, 1954 in Ikata Ehime, Japan. He is a Japanese-born American electronic engineer and prolific inventor who specializes in the semiconductor technology field.

Additionally, the invention of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and, green and white LEDs as well made him famous. These led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 which he shared with Japanese material scientists; Akasaki Isamu and Amano Hiroshi.

The inventions of LEDs have numerous applications in fields that include communication and information. In addition to that,  energy and the environment, and health care and science are his works.

7. Hideki Yukawa

Yukawa was born on the 23^rd of January, 1907 in Azabu Tokyo, Japan. A Japanese Theoretical physicist and was the first Japanese to hold the Nobel Prize. He was married to Sumi Yukawa and had two children.

In history, he brought in the proposal of the existence of a new kind of particle, the meson. This particle explains how protons and neutrons in the nucleus interact.

For this, he received the Nobel Prize in physics. His death happened on the 8^th of September, 1981 in Kyoto, Japan.

8. Ted Theodore Fujita

Fujita was born on the 23^rd of October, 1920 in Fukuoka, Japan. Therefore,  he was a Japanese-American like many of his counterparts.

His area was meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather.

Being the meteorologist who created the Fujita Scale, he scored the goal of being famous. This system of classifying tornado intensity based on damage to structures and vegetation.

He received awards like the Order of the Sacred Treasure and gold and silver stars in 1991 and died on the 19^th of December, 1998 in Chicago Illinois, United States.

9. Takaaki Kajita

The birth date of Kajita was born on the 9^th of March, 1959 in Saitama Japan. He is a physicist known for neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory; Kamiokande and its successor, Super-Kamiokande.

Moreover, he is famous for discovering the oscillations of neutrinos from one flavor to another, it proved that those subatomic particles have mass.

Having achieved that got him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015. This he shared with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald.

10. Yoichiro Nambu

Nambu was born on the 18^th of January, 1921 in Tokyo City, Japan. He was a Japanese-American physicist and a professor at the University of Chicago. He was a family man with one child; John Juichi Nambu.

The discovery of spontaneous symmetry breaking in subatomic particle physics were his works. It is said that each of the fundamental theories owes its existence to Nambu’s deep insight.

For this discovery, he won the Nobel Prize. He later on the 5^th of July, 2015 in Toyonaka Osaka, Japan.

Therefore, Japan can be attributed to have had great minds. The list of scientists can go on and on but of importance to note are the few listed above.

They are recognized for the great roles played in inventions and developments. These scientists have brought to life a good number of things in different scientific fields.

These fields are inclusive of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology.

The major contributions in the scientific world could be traced back to the Japanese scientists. Besides, they have contributed a lot to worldwide projects and have supported the growth of the world in the relevant fields.

In appreciation, the scientists have been rewarded various prizes and awards.