Kenji Ueno (上野 健爾, Ueno Kenji, 1945, Kumamoto Prefecture) is a Japanese mathematician, specializing in algebraic…
Kenji Ueno (上野 健爾, Ueno Kenji, 1945, Kumamoto Prefecture) is a Japanese mathematician, specializing in algebraic geometry. He was in the 1970s at the University of Tokyo and was from 1987 to 2009 a professor at the University of Kyoto and is now the director of Yokkaichi University's Seki Kōwa Institute for Mathematics. In 1978 he was an Invited Speaker (Classification of algebraic manifolds) at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki. Ueno was a visiting professor at several universities, including the University of Bonn and the University of Mannheim in the 1970s. He is the author and editor of several books on algebraic geometry.
Famous Alumni of Kyoto University
Kyoto University: 355 people
Takeo Kanade (金出 武雄, Kanade Takeo; born October 24, 1945 in Hyōgo) is a Japanese computer scientist and one of the…
Takeo Kanade (金出 武雄, Kanade Takeo; born October 24, 1945 in Hyōgo) is a Japanese computer scientist and one of the world's foremost researchers in computer vision. He is U.A. and Helen Whitaker Professor at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. He has approximately 300 peer-reviewed academic publications and holds around 20 patents.
Akihiro Ota (太田 昭宏, Ōta Akihiro; born 6 October 1945) is a Japanese politician of the Komeito Party and a former member…
Akihiro Ota (太田 昭宏, Ōta Akihiro; born 6 October 1945) is a Japanese politician of the Komeito Party and a former member of the House of Representatives in the National Diet. Ota represented three districts within the Tokyo metropolis since he first entered the Diet in 1993. He served as chief representative of the Komeito Party from 2006 until the general election in September 2009, at which time he lost his seat in the Diet. Upon his return to the House in December 2012, Ota was appointed as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, a post he held until October 2015. Ota has been involved with Komeito and the Soka Gakkai movement since graduation from university and was called "Komeito's prince" earlier in his career.
Tsuyoshi Okudaira (Japanese: 奥平 剛士, romanized: Okudaira Tsuyoshi; IPA: [o̞kɯ̟da̠iɾa̠ t͡sɨjo̞ɕi]; July 21, 1945 – May…
Tsuyoshi Okudaira (Japanese: 奥平 剛士, romanized: Okudaira Tsuyoshi; IPA: [o̞kɯ̟da̠iɾa̠ t͡sɨjo̞ɕi]; July 21, 1945 – May 30, 1972) was a Japanese communist activist and one of the leaders of the militant group Japanese Red Army (JRA). He was killed carrying out the Lod Airport Massacre near Lod, Israel on May 30, 1972. At the time of his death, he was married to JRA leader Fusako Shigenobu. He was the older brother of fellow JRA activist Junzō Okudaira.
Masanori Tanimoto (Japanese: 谷本 正憲, Hepburn: Tanimoto Masanori; born 16 April 1945) is a Japanese politician who was…
Masanori Tanimoto (Japanese: 谷本 正憲, Hepburn: Tanimoto Masanori; born 16 April 1945) is a Japanese politician who was the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture between 1994 and 2022, serving seven terms in total.
Shuji Sato (佐藤 修二, SATO Shuji; born 9 April 1945, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese astronomer and Professor…
Shuji Sato (佐藤 修二, SATO Shuji; born 9 April 1945, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese astronomer and Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University. His specialty is infrared astronomy.
Tatsuo Kawabata (川端 達夫, Kawabata Tatsuo; born 24 January 1945) is a former Japanese politician from the Democratic…
Tatsuo Kawabata (川端 達夫, Kawabata Tatsuo; born 24 January 1945) is a former Japanese politician from the Democratic Party. A native of Ōmihachiman, Shiga, he attended Kyoto University and received a master's degree from it. His elder brother is former mayor of Ōmihachiman Gohei Kawabata.
Misako Enoki (榎 美沙子, Enoki Misako; born 23 January 1945) is a Japanese feminist, pharmacist, and politician. She helped…
Misako Enoki (榎 美沙子, Enoki Misako; born 23 January 1945) is a Japanese feminist, pharmacist, and politician. She helped launch and became a symbol of the feminist movement in Japan when she organized activists to push for the legalization of the birth control pill. As a sign of respect for her elderly parents, Enoki was compelled to marry at the age of 24. She married physician Natsuo Kiuchi, retaining her maiden name. Enoki began her involvement with the Japanese women's liberation translation group known as Wolf Group (Urufu no Kai). She distributed a pamphlet calling for the legalization of the birth control pill, initially using the group's name, angering group members who did not share her position. Enoki attended the Ribu Conference of May 1972, recruiting women to form a protest group called Chūpiren ([ja: 中ピ連]; sometimes known as Pink Panthers or pink helmets) as a radical wing of the Japanese feminist movement. Chūpiren was an abbreviation for Chūzetsu Kinshi Hō ni Hantai Shi Piru Kaikin o Yōkyū Suru Josei Kaihō Rengō (Women's Liberation Federation for Opposing the Abortion Prohibition Law and Lifting the Pill Ban). The group organized well-attended demonstrations for a series of campaigns addressing the concerns of women. Chūpiren was concerned with legal rights in divorce and marriage, access to birth control, abortion, and equal pay. Wearing pink hard hats to ensure maximal media attention, the demonstrators marched in white military-style uniforms. They held protest rallies and sit-ins and took part in publicity stunts such as confronting unfaithful husbands in their offices. The male-dominated media gave coverage to Chūpiren but did not take them seriously, instead ridiculing the movement. Enoki debated with Japanese feminist Mitsu Tanaka, who did not think that Chūpiren could be considered part of uuman ribu, the Japanese women's liberation movement. Enoki was not well trusted in the ribu and members of Chūpiren were critical of her style of leadership. Enoki formed the Japan Woman's Party (Nihon Joseitō) for the 1977 House of Councillors election. The party put forward 10 to 12 candidates in the election and fared poorly, receiving only 0.4 per cent of the popular vote. Following the election, Chūpiren was disbanded and Enoki left public life. Enoki's husband lent her $38,000 to help finance the 1977 political campaign of the Japan Women's Party. They struck a bargain where she would resume housework at their apartment in suburban Tokyo and he would write off $2,670 of the loan for each month of housework.
Issei Nishikawa (西川 一誠, Nishikawa Issei; born 2 January 1945) is a Japanese politician and a former governor of Fukui…
Issei Nishikawa (西川 一誠, Nishikawa Issei; born 2 January 1945) is a Japanese politician and a former governor of Fukui Prefecture in Japan. He was elected first in 2003. A native of Asahi, Fukui and graduate of Kyoto University with an LL.B. degree in 1968, he joined the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1968.
Thereza Imanishi-Kari is an associate professor of pathology at Tufts University. Her research focuses on the origins…
Thereza Imanishi-Kari is an associate professor of pathology at Tufts University. Her research focuses on the origins of autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus, studied using mice as model organisms. Previously she had been a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is notable for her role in what became known as the "Baltimore affair", in which a 1986 paper she co-authored with David Baltimore was the subject of research misconduct allegations. Following a series of investigations, she was eventually exonerated of the charges in 1996.
Goro Nishida (西田 吾郎, Nishida Gorō; 18 September 1943, in Osaka – 2 June 2014) was a Japanese mathematician. He was a…
Goro Nishida (西田 吾郎, Nishida Gorō; 18 September 1943, in Osaka – 2 June 2014) was a Japanese mathematician. He was a leading member of the Japanese school of homotopy theory, following in the tradition of Hiroshi Toda. Nishida received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 1973, after spending the 1971–72 academic year at the University of Manchester in England. He then became a professor at Kyoto University in 1990. His proof in 1973 of Michael Barratt's conjecture (that positive-degree elements in the stable homotopy ring of spheres are nilpotent) was a major breakthrough: following Frank Adams' solution of the Hopf invariant one problem, it marked the beginning of a new global understanding of algebraic topology. His contributions to the field were celebrated in 2003 at the NishidaFest in Kinosaki, followed by a satellite conference at the Nagoya Institute of Technology; the proceedings were published in Geometry and Topology's monograph series. In 2000 he was the leading organizer for a concentration year at the Japan–US Mathematics Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Nishida's earliest work grew out of the study of infinite loop spaces; his first paper (in 1968, on what came eventually to be known as the Nishida relations) accounts for interactions between Steenrod operations and Kudo–Araki (Dyer–Lashof) operations. Some of his later work concerns a circle of ideas surrounding the Segal conjecture, transfer homomorphisms, and stable splittings of classifying spaces of groups. The ideas in this series of papers have by now grown into a rich subfield of homotopy theory; it continues today in (for example) the theory of p-compact groups.
Masahisa Fujita (藤田 昌久, Fujita Masahisa; born 21 July 1943) is a Japanese economist who has studied regional science…
Masahisa Fujita (藤田 昌久, Fujita Masahisa; born 21 July 1943) is a Japanese economist who has studied regional science, urban economics, international trade, and spatial economy (new economic geography). He is a professor at Konan University and an adjunct professor at Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University. Fujita majored in urban planning as an undergraduate at Kyoto University. He studied regional science in University of Pennsylvania under Walter Isard and obtained a Ph.D. (in Regional Science) from University of Pennsylvania in 1972. He taught at University of Pennsylvania for about 20 years, and has been the faculty of Institute of Economic Research (KIER) Kyoto University since 1995, where he served as Director in 1999. He was the President of Institute of Developing Economies during 2003 to 2007, and proposed a basic concept of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia to JETRO and METI. In 2007, he became President and Chief Research Officer of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. Fujita is known as one of the pioneers of New Economic Geography, as well as Paul Krugman. Fujita is the recipient of the 1983 Tord Palander Prize, the 1998 Walter Isard Award in regional science, and was also awarded the first Alonso Prize, alongside Paul Krugman.
Yukio Takeuchi (竹内 行夫, Takeuchi Yukio; born 20 July 1943) is a Japanese diplomat and jurist who served as a justice of…
Yukio Takeuchi (竹内 行夫, Takeuchi Yukio; born 20 July 1943) is a Japanese diplomat and jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Japan from 2008 to 2013. Before his appointment to the court, he served as vice minister for foreign affairs from 2002 to 2005 and ambassador to Indonesia from 2001 to 2002.
Hisashi Yamamoto (山本 尚, Yamamoto Hisashi) (born July 16, 1943) is a prominent organic chemist and currently a member of…
Hisashi Yamamoto (山本 尚, Yamamoto Hisashi) (born July 16, 1943) is a prominent organic chemist and currently a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago and professor of Chubu University.
Mutsuo Tahara (田原 睦夫, Tahara Mutsuo; April 23, 1943 – February 19, 2016) was a Japanese judge who was a member of the…
Mutsuo Tahara (田原 睦夫, Tahara Mutsuo; April 23, 1943 – February 19, 2016) was a Japanese judge who was a member of the Supreme Court of Japan. He is notable in Japan for his contributions to bankruptcy law.
Akira Hosomi (1943 – 9 September 2018) was a Japanese chemist. He was professor emeritus at Tsukuba University, a…
Akira Hosomi (1943 – 9 September 2018) was a Japanese chemist. He was professor emeritus at Tsukuba University, a fellow of the Chemical Society of Japan, a visiting professor at Chuo University, and an academic advisor at Kyushu University.
Hiroshi Matsumoto (松本 紘, Matsumoto Hiroshi; November 17, 1942 – June 15, 2025) was a Japanese engineer and atmospheric…
Hiroshi Matsumoto (松本 紘, Matsumoto Hiroshi; November 17, 1942 – June 15, 2025) was a Japanese engineer and atmospheric scientist. He was the president of Kyoto University until August 2014, and then served as the president of RIKEN until March 2022. He was a member of the Japanese government's committee on space policy. He had a Doctorate in Engineering (1973, Kyoto University). He was born in Zhangjiakou, China. His research centered on plasma in the geomagnetosphere and cosmosphere. He developed the KEMPO (Kyoto university ElectroMagnetic Particle) code to reproduce the dynamics of the physical processes of space plasma. He led the plasma wave Geotail observations, and helped elucidate mechanisms of excitation, such as electrostatic solitary waves. He also worked on studies for the practical application of microwave power transmission in space. Matsumoto died on June 15, 2025, at the age of 82.
Sachio Semmoto (千本 倖生, Senmoto Sachio; born 1942-09-09 in Nara Prefecture) is the current chairman and CEO of eAccess…
Sachio Semmoto (千本 倖生, Senmoto Sachio; born 1942-09-09 in Nara Prefecture) is the current chairman and CEO of eAccess and eMobile, a Japanese telecommunication company. On March 24, 2009, he was also appointed as a director to the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited. Semmoto has also served on the Board of Directors for Softbank and the Sega Corporation. Semmoto received his bachelor's degree from Kyoto University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida.
Shigeo Omae (大前 繁雄, Ōmae Shigeo; born 28 June 1942) is a retired Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party…
Shigeo Omae (大前 繁雄, Ōmae Shigeo; born 28 June 1942) is a retired Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature).
Shingo Haketa (羽毛田 信吾, Haketa Shingo; born 5 April 1942) is a Japanese bureaucrat. He served as Grand Steward of the…
Shingo Haketa (羽毛田 信吾, Haketa Shingo; born 5 April 1942) is a Japanese bureaucrat. He served as Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency from 1 April 2005 to 1 June 2012. Appointed by Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi, a promoter of absolute primogeniture, Haketa is known as a supporter of the report submitted by the Advisory Council on Imperial Household Act, recommending absolute primogeniture. He criticized Prince Tomohito of Mikasa for his comment that agnatic primogeniture should be kept, and requested the members of the Imperial House to refrain from expressing their opinions on the succession. Right after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino, he commented that the newborn prince would not solve the succession crisis, and insisted that the law be changed. In November 2011, he held a meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to discuss the possibility for allowing women to head branches of the Imperial House (rather than losing imperial status upon marriage), in order to replenish the number of imperial members who can help fulfill the court-related duties. He had worked at the Ministry of Health until he was installed as Vice-Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency in 2001. Among his senior colleagues at the Ministry of Health was Teijiro Furukawa, a member of the Advisory Council on the Imperial Household Law. Haketa announced his retirement effective 1 June 2012, and was replaced by Noriyuki Kazaoka.
Norio Wakui (涌井 紀夫, Wakui Norio) (February 11, 1942-December 17, 2009
Tasuku Honjo (本庶 佑, Honjo Tasuku; born January 27, 1942) is a Japanese physician-scientist and immunologist. He won the…
Tasuku Honjo (本庶 佑, Honjo Tasuku; born January 27, 1942) is a Japanese physician-scientist and immunologist. He won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and is best known for his identification of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1). He is also known for his molecular identification of cytokines IL-4 and IL-5, as well as the discovery of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) that is essential for class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation. He was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2001, a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2003, and as a member of the Japan Academy in 2005. In 2018, he was awarded a Nobel Prize with James P. Allison. He and Allison together had won the 2014 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science for the same achievement.
Shigetada Nakanishi (born January 7, 1942) is a Japanese biochemist and neuroscientist. Both a medical doctor and…
Shigetada Nakanishi (born January 7, 1942) is a Japanese biochemist and neuroscientist. Both a medical doctor and biomedical researcher by training, Nakanishi is the director of the Osaka Bioscience Institute and professor emeritus at Kyoto University. He has received several scientific awards for his research in neuroscience, having characterized the molecular structure or function of several protein receptors. He is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S.
Takaya Shiomi (塩見 孝也, Shiomi Takaya; May 22, 1941 - November 14, 2017) was a Japanese communist activist and the…
Takaya Shiomi (塩見 孝也, Shiomi Takaya; May 22, 1941 - November 14, 2017) was a Japanese communist activist and the founder and leader of Red Army Faction (Sekigunha), a schismatic militant subfaction of the Japan Communist League. He was the mastermind behind the hijacking of Japan Air Lines Flight 351 to North Korea in 1970, although his arrest just days prior prevented his direct participation in the incident.
Atsushi Tokinoya (時野谷 敦, Tokinoya Atsushi; born April 1941 in Tokyo) is a Japanese diplomat.
Toshisada Nishida (3 March 1941 – 7 June 2011) was a Japanese primatologist who established one of the first long term…
Toshisada Nishida (3 March 1941 – 7 June 2011) was a Japanese primatologist who established one of the first long term chimpanzee field research sites. He was the first to discover that chimpanzees, instead of forming nuclear family-like arrangements, live a communal life with territorial boundaries. His discoveries of the medicinal use of plants by wild chimpanzees helped form the basis of the field of zoopharmacognosy. Nishida was a full professor of Zoology at Kyoto University, the President of the Primate Society of Japan, the President of the International Primatological Society, and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Primates. In 2008, he was a recipient of the Leakey Prize for his accomplishments in human evolutionary science.
Naokazu Takemoto (竹本 直一, Takemoto Naokazu; born 23 November 1940) is a former Japanese politician who served in the…
Naokazu Takemoto (竹本 直一, Takemoto Naokazu; born 23 November 1940) is a former Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Toshihide Ibaraki (Japanese: 茨木 俊秀, born 1940) is a Japanese computer scientist and operations researcher known for his…
Toshihide Ibaraki (Japanese: 茨木 俊秀, born 1940) is a Japanese computer scientist and operations researcher known for his research on graph algorithms, databases, resource allocation, fractional programming, and metaheuristics. He is a professor emeritus and former dean of informatics at Kyoto University, and the former president of The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics.
Yoshiki Kuramoto (蔵本 由紀, Kuramoto Yoshiki) (born 1940) is a Japanese physicist in the Nonlinear Dynamics group at Kyoto…
Yoshiki Kuramoto (蔵本 由紀, Kuramoto Yoshiki) (born 1940) is a Japanese physicist in the Nonlinear Dynamics group at Kyoto University who formulated the Kuramoto model and is also known for the Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation. He is also the discoverer of so-called chimera states in networks of coupled oscillators. Kuramoto specializes in nonlinear dynamics (also known as nonlinear science) and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Notably, he has worked on the network dynamics created by limit cycle oscillators. Among his accomplishments is the derivation of the Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation, which describes the phase instability of oscillating fields. This is regarded as the first example of spatiotemporal chaos. Another achievement is his proposal of a solvable model for oscillator populations, now known as the Kuramoto model. Other achievements include deriving the complex Ginzburg–Landau equation in reaction-diffusion systems and studying the entrainment phenomenon in coupled oscillator systems.
Shuntaro Torigoe (鳥越 俊太郎, Torigoe Shuntarō) (born 13 March 1940) is a Japanese journalist and political activist.
Tadao Oda (小田忠雄, Oda Tadao) (born 1940, Kyoto) is a Japanese mathematician working in the field of algebraic geometry…
Tadao Oda (小田忠雄, Oda Tadao) (born 1940, Kyoto) is a Japanese mathematician working in the field of algebraic geometry, especially toric varieties. The field of toric varieties was developed by Demazure, Mumford, Miyake, Oda and others in the 1970s. He is also known for a book on toric varieties: Convex Bodies and Algebraic Geometry: An Introduction to the Theory of Toric Varieties. In 1958 Oda graduated from Tokai High School in Nagoya, Japan, where Shigefumi Mori and Hisasi Morikawa also graduated from. He earned his bachelor's degree from Kyoto University in 1962, and five years later earned a Ph.D. under David Mumford from Harvard University with thesis Abelian varieties over a perfect field and Dieudonné Modules. After completing his Ph.D., Oda was an associate professor at Nagoya University and became a professor at Tohoku University in 1975. He remained at the university for 28 years. He is an emeritus professor at Tohoku University. Oda wrote "Algebraic Geometry, Sendai, 1985" with Hisasi Morikawa, a former professor at Nagoya University. Tadao has belonged to the Kiwanis Club of Sendai since 1999 and was elected to a three-year term as a trustee of Kiwanis International in 2008.
Susumu Tonegawa (利根川 進, Tonegawa Susumu; September 5, 1939 – July 11, 2026) was a Japanese scientist who was the sole…
Susumu Tonegawa (利根川 進, Tonegawa Susumu; September 5, 1939 – July 11, 2026) was a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa was a molecular biologist by training and, following his Nobel Prize win, changed fields to neuroscience, examining the molecular, cellular and neuronal basis of memory formation and retrieval.
Hiroyuki Matsunami (松波弘之 born June 5, 1939) is a Japanese engineer, researcher and educator. He was awarded the IEEE…
Hiroyuki Matsunami (松波弘之 born June 5, 1939) is a Japanese engineer, researcher and educator. He was awarded the IEEE Edison Medal in 2023 for his pioneering contributions to the development of the material silicon carbide and its applications in electronic power devices. Currently, he holds the position of professor emeritus at Kyoto University and serves as a specially appointed professor at Kyoto University of Advanced Science.
Wataru Asō (麻生 渡, Asō Wataru; 15 May 1939 – 15 March 2025) was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as the…
Wataru Asō (麻生 渡, Asō Wataru; 15 May 1939 – 15 March 2025) was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as the Governor of Fukuoka from 1995 to 2011. From 2005 to 2011 he was also President of the National Governors Association (Japan) (全国知事会, Zenkoku Chiji-kai).
Tadahiro Matsushita (松下 忠洋, Matsushita Tadahiro; 9 February 1939 – 10 September 2012) was a Japanese politician and…
Tadahiro Matsushita (松下 忠洋, Matsushita Tadahiro; 9 February 1939 – 10 September 2012) was a Japanese politician and five-time member of the House of Representatives of Japan. He served in government from 1962 when he joined the Ministry of Construction to 2012. At the time of his death, he was the Minister of State for Financial Services. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993, and was re-elected to four consecutive terms. However, when he failed to support postal privatization, the leaders of his party, the Liberal Democratic Party, refused to support his 2005 campaign. As a result, he dropped out of the race. He returned to run again in 2009, this time as a member of a smaller group, the recently founded People's New Party. He won his election, and for the rest of his life was one of only three members of his party to hold a seat in the House.
Yoshio Sugimoto (杉本良夫, Sugimoto Yoshio; born December 7, 1939) is a sociologist based at La Trobe University…
Yoshio Sugimoto (杉本良夫, Sugimoto Yoshio; born December 7, 1939) is a sociologist based at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, where he is currently Emeritus Professor.
Tokuji Izumi (泉 德治, Izumi Tokuji; born January 25, 1939) is a Japanese attorney (Special Counsel of TMI Associates). He…
Tokuji Izumi (泉 德治, Izumi Tokuji; born January 25, 1939) is a Japanese attorney (Special Counsel of TMI Associates). He was a career judge and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. Following his retirement, Izumi participated in a public campaign against the re-election of two of his former colleagues, Justices Wakui and Nasu, in protest against the votes they had cast in an electoral malapportionment case.
Osamu Tsuno (津野 修, Tsuno Osamu; born 20 October 1938) is a Japanese official and jurist who served as justice of the…
Osamu Tsuno (津野 修, Tsuno Osamu; born 20 October 1938) is a Japanese official and jurist who served as justice of the Supreme Court from 2004 to 2008 and as Director General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau from 1999 to 2002. Tsuno studied law at Kyoto University, graduated in 1962 and joined the Ministry of Finance. He held several positions in the Ministry before being transferred to the Cabinet Legislation Bureau in 1986, becoming director of the Third Department. He successively became director of the First Department in 1992, Deputy Director General in 1996 and Director General in 1999. He retired in 2002. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2004 and served until 2008, when he reached the obligatory retirement age.
Fumiko Yonezawa (Japanese: 米沢 富美子; 19 October 1938 – 17 January 2019) was a Japanese theoretical physicist. She was the…
Fumiko Yonezawa (Japanese: 米沢 富美子; 19 October 1938 – 17 January 2019) was a Japanese theoretical physicist. She was the first woman to be appointed as the President of the Physical Society of Japan and the first Japanese student to have studied at Keele University in Staffordshire, United Kingdom. She was one of the founding members of the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Japan. Her research covered semi-conductors and liquid metals. She led a group of scientists and pioneered in visualising computer simulation.
Shōshin Kuwayama (桑山正進 Kuwayama Shōshin, born September 8, 1938) is a Japanese historian and archaeologist.
Ryōji Noyori (野依 良治, Noyori Ryōji; born 3 September 1938) is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in…
Ryōji Noyori (野依 良治, Noyori Ryōji; born 3 September 1938) is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001. Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his study in chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation).
Fumitaka Sato (23 March 1938 – 14 September 2025) was a Japanese astrophysicist and theoretical physicist. He died from…
Fumitaka Sato (23 March 1938 – 14 September 2025) was a Japanese astrophysicist and theoretical physicist. He died from bacterial pneumonia at a hospital in Kyoto, on 14 September 2025, at the age of 87.
Takayoshi Kano (加納 隆至, Kanō Takayoshi) is a Japanese primatologist, known for his pioneering work on the bonobo (Pan…
Takayoshi Kano (加納 隆至, Kanō Takayoshi) is a Japanese primatologist, known for his pioneering work on the bonobo (Pan paniscus). He highlighted their peaceful communal lifestyle and the high frequency of sexual interactions. A student of Junichiro Itani, he was a professor at Ryukyu University and at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. In 1973, he founded the first bonobo study center, at Wamba, Luo Reserve. It is the oldest bonobo research area and has survived a number of political upheavals in the region. Initially in his career, he assisted Toshisada Nishida in his work on the chimpanzees of the Mahale mountains in Tanzania. In 1971, Nishida conducted a brief survey looking for the bonobo (or the "pygmy chimpanzee"), and encountered several abandoned chimpanzee nests. In the conclusion of his report, he suggests that: "Before we can begin to make an intensive study, we must first make an extensive preliminary survey covering the vast area of the Central Congo Basin". In 1973, Takayoshi Kano conducted this survey, covering a large area of several hundred kilometers on bicycle, when he visited a number of remote villages unaccustomed to non-Africans, some of which were hostile. He eventually came upon the village of Wamba, where the villagers were more welcoming, and he could hear bonobo calls from the forest. Unlike the area near Lake Tumba visited by Nishida, there was no tradition of hunting chimpanzees for bushmeat here. It took over a year of effort by Kano and his assistant, Suehisa Kuroda, before they could habituate the first group of bonobos in the area, provisioning them via a sugarcane patch. The chimpanzees in the area have little fear of humans, because of a local legend, that humans and bonobos were cousins. "According to this belief, an older brother in a family of bonobos held to their traditional lifestyle and his descendants thus remained in the forest as bonobos. However, his younger brother was tired of eating raw foods. Once upon a time, he was roaming in the forest, crying, a spirit of the forest taught him to make fire, after which he left the forest and began eating cooked food. His descendants became humans. Therefore, the village people consider the bonobos akin to distant brothers and do not kill or eat them". In the local language of the Bongando, one of the words for the bonobo is elia, or "missed" - the bonobos are thought to have "missed" becoming human, or have been "blocked" on this path. Kano was among the first to comment extensively on the sexual practices among the bonobo, particularly the use of sex as a mechanism for reducing tensions within the group. Kano's work motivated a large group of researchers to work at Wamba, many of them from Kyoto and other institutions in Japan. He was among the movers in the founding of the Luo Scientific Reserve in 1990. The group was forced to pause its work several times - during the anti-Mobutu outbreak in 1991-92, and a major disruption after the Tutsi rebellion and war from 1996 to 2002. Kano's main work, The Last Ape: Pygmy Chimpanzee Behavior and Ecology, was translated from Japanese into English in 1992.
Kōbun Otogawa (乙川 弘文, Otogawa Kōbun) (February 1, 1938 – July 26, 2002) was an American Sōtō Zen priest.
Bunmei Ibuki (伊吹 文明, Ibuki Bunmei; born 9 January 1938) is a retired Japanese politician who served as the Speaker of…
Bunmei Ibuki (伊吹 文明, Ibuki Bunmei; born 9 January 1938) is a retired Japanese politician who served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2014.
Takeshi Maeda (前田 武志, Maeda Takeshi; born 22 October 1937) is a retired Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of…
Takeshi Maeda (前田 武志, Maeda Takeshi; born 22 October 1937) is a retired Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, who served as a member of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature).
Giichi Tsunoda (Japanese: 角田義一; Tsunoda Giichi; 9 June 1937 – 23 February 2024) was a Japanese lawyer and politician. A…
Giichi Tsunoda (Japanese: 角田義一; Tsunoda Giichi; 9 June 1937 – 23 February 2024) was a Japanese lawyer and politician. A member of the Japan Socialist Party and the Democratic Party, he served in the House of Councillors from 1989 to 2007. Tsunoda died in Maebashi on 23 February 2024, at the age of 86.
Shigeo Takii (滝井 繁男, Takii Shigeo; October 31, 1936 – February 28, 2015) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.
Makoto Nagao (長尾 真, Nagao Makoto; October 4, 1936 – May 23, 2021) was a Japanese computer scientist. He contributed to…
Makoto Nagao (長尾 真, Nagao Makoto; October 4, 1936 – May 23, 2021) was a Japanese computer scientist. He contributed to various fields: machine translation, natural language processing, pattern recognition, image processing and library science. He was the 23rd president of Kyoto University (1997–2003) and the 14th director of National Diet Library in Japan (2007–2012).
Ichirō Inaba (稲葉 一郎, Inaba Ichirō; 3 May 1936 – 23 September 2017) was a Japanese historian of China and professor…
Ichirō Inaba (稲葉 一郎, Inaba Ichirō; 3 May 1936 – 23 September 2017) was a Japanese historian of China and professor emeritus at Kwansei Gakuin University.