THE JAPAN NEWS


 

The influx of Nobel Prizes won by Japanese laureates, which began in 2000, shows no signs of ending. Yoshinori Ohsumi, 71, an honorary professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, is the 17th Japanese Nobel laureate in 17 years.

Ohsumi’s Nobel Prize also marks a significant accomplishment as the third consecutive year since 2014 with Nobel Prizes awarded to Japanese.

The awards are coming in at a faster pace than the goal set by the government in the Second Science and Technology Basic Plan compiled in 2001, of 30 Nobel laureates in 50 years.

Before 2000, Japan’s last winner in the field of natural sciences was Susumu Tonegawa in 1987. Until then, only five Japanese had won prizes in the field in the 39 years since Hideki Yukawa became a laureate in 1949.

An active movement to recommend Japanese candidates for Nobel Prizes began following the government’s compilation of the Second Science and Technology Basic Plan.

But Takuji Okamoto, an associate professor of the history of science at the University of Tokyo who is very knowledgeable about the Nobel Prizes, said: “As Stockholm is highly skilled at gathering information, it does not matter whether the number of recommendations is large or small. The proof is that Koichi Tanaka, who was previously almost unknown in Japan, won the award.”

Okamoto added, “The reason why the number of winners has increased in
recent years is that there has been a large number of excellent achievements.”

Looking at 15 achievements of the 17 Nobel recipients, two achievements were announced in the 1960s, five in the 1970s, and four in the 1990s and after.

Looking back at the 1970s and 1980s, the United States was raising the tone of its criticisms against Japan, saying that Japan was a “free rider” on other countries’ basic research results, in line with mounting trade friction between the two countries.

However, in reality, the series of Nobel Prize wins by Japanese in recent years has proven that extremely high-quality basic research has been continuing steadily.

When basic research seemingly far removed from practical use produces excellent results that transcend conventional ways of thinking, a new horizon is discovered and the research results can lead to epoch-making applications.

Ohsumi’s research, focusing on the mechanisms of living creatures, is a typical example of that.
His achievement confers “benefit to mankind,” a condition necessary to win a Nobel Prize.

About 150 years have passed since natural sciences from Western countries were fully introduced to Japan. Now many Japanese researchers play leading roles overseas and it is not rare for foreign researchers to do the same in Japan.

Japan’s human resources, facilities and funds for development of sciences play very large roles.

Some middle and high school students who dislike science classes recoil at the phrase “cell biology,” feeling it is too difficult to comprehend. It is recommended that such people learn a little about the scientific capabilities of Japan, which can be a source of international pride.

For the time being, from now on there will surely be a large number of news reports and publications that explain Ohsumi’s achievement in an easy-to-understand manner.

The influx of Nobel Prizes is only meaningful if an increasing number of Japanese become interested in science and enjoy talking about the subject.