Akira Hasegawa (Japanese: 長谷川 晃, Hepburn: Hasegawa Akira; 17 June 1934 – 22 June 2025) was a Japanese theoretical…
Akira Hasegawa (Japanese: 長谷川 晃, Hepburn: Hasegawa Akira; 17 June 1934 – 22 June 2025) was a Japanese theoretical physicist and engineer who worked in the U.S. and Japan. He is known for his work in the derivation of the Hasegawa–Mima equation, which describes fundamental plasma turbulence and the consequent generation of zonal flow that controls plasma diffusion. Hasegawa also made the discovery of optical solitons in glass fibers, a concept that is essential for high speed optical communications. Hasegawa was the first to suggest the existence of optical solitons in 1973. In 1974, he (together with Liu Chen) showed that plasmas could be heated with the kinetic Alfvén wave. Hasegawa and Chen introduced the concept of the kinetic Alfven wave to illustrate the microscopic process of the Alfven wave heating. In 1977, Hasegawa introduced the Hasegawa–Mima equation to describe turbulence in Tokamak plasmas and then further developed it in the 1980s (with Masahiro Wakatani) to obtain the Hasegawa–Wakatani equation. The equation predicted an inverse cascade in the turbulent energy spectrum (i.e., from small to large wavelengths) and zonal flows (in the azimuthal direction in the Tokamak) that can control radial turbulent diffusion. With Wakatani, he wrote a paper on self-organized turbulence in plasmas. Hasegawa's proposal to trap plasmas with a dipole magnet similar to Earth's magnetic field, where turbulence caused by solar wind stabilizes the trap, was implemented in the first dipole plasma experiment at University of Tokyo by Prof. Zensho Yoshida. In 2010, a plasma experiment with a floating dipole was also built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Famous People Born on June 17
June 17: 60 people
Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi (白柳 誠一 Shirayanagi Seiichi; 17 June 1928 – 30 December 2009) was a Japanese Catholic prelate…
Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi (白柳 誠一 Shirayanagi Seiichi; 17 June 1928 – 30 December 2009) was a Japanese Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Tokyo from 1970 to 2000. He was made a cardinal in 1994, and also served as head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan from 1983 to 1992.
Setsuko Hara (原 節子, Hara Setsuko; born Masae Aida (会田 昌江); 17 June 1920 – 5 September 2015) was a Japanese actress. She…
Setsuko Hara (原 節子, Hara Setsuko; born Masae Aida (会田 昌江); 17 June 1920 – 5 September 2015) was a Japanese actress. She is best known for her performances in Yasujirō Ozu's films Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953) and Tokyo Twilight (1957), amongst many others, and for working extensively with director Mikio Naruse. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest Japanese film actresses of all time.
Takehiko Kanagoki (17 June 1914 – 19 February 1992) was a Japanese basketball player. He competed in the men's…
Takehiko Kanagoki (17 June 1914 – 19 February 1992) was a Japanese basketball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1936 Summer Olympics. His correct family name is Kanokogi (鹿子木), not Kanagoki. He was the son of Japanese father, Kanokogi Kazunobu, philosopher, and Polish-German mother, Cornelia, Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński's daughter.
Akiko Shiga (志賀 暁子, Shiga Akiko; June 17, 1910 – September 17, 1990) was a Japanese actress and singer.
Yoshimi Usui (臼井 吉見, Usui Yoshimi; June 17, 1905 – July 12, 1987) was a Japanese writer and critic from Azumino, Nagano…
Yoshimi Usui (臼井 吉見, Usui Yoshimi; June 17, 1905 – July 12, 1987) was a Japanese writer and critic from Azumino, Nagano prefecture. Usui won the 1974 10th Tanizaki Prize for Azumino (安曇野). In 1977 he published a novelised account of Kawabata's death that led to a lawsuit against him by the Nobel Prize-winner's family.
Mitani Takanobu (Japanese: 三谷隆信; 17 June 1892 – 13 January 1985) was a Japanese government official who served nearly…
Mitani Takanobu (Japanese: 三谷隆信; 17 June 1892 – 13 January 1985) was a Japanese government official who served nearly fifty years in the Foreign Ministry and the Imperial Household Agency, During World War II he was Japan's ambassador to Vichy France, years during which the Japanese armed forces occupied French Indochina while leaving the colonial administration in place. After the war, he served seventeen years as Grand Chamberlain. Mitani was born in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama City, Kyoto Prefecture. His father was a raw silk merchant, his mother was a daughter of a wealthy farmer. He graduated from Kyoto Prefectural Fourth Junior High School and First High School, After graduating in Law from Tokyo Imperial University in 1917, he joined the Home Ministry, then in 1920 transferred to the Foreign Ministry. Mitani served briefly in Paris and attended the Washington Naval Conference before returning to Tokyo for assignments in the Treaty department, and then with personnel. During the 1930s he was First Secretary in the Japanese Embassy in Paris, and thrice served as Chargé d'affaires ad interim between changes of Ambassador. He returned to Tokyo in 1938 to head the Cultural Affairs department. In 1940, he was posted as Minister to Switzerland. In April 1942, Mitani was named Ambassador to the Pétain government. When the German occupiers withdrew from France during the summer of 1944, he followed the Vichy leadership to Sigmaringen where he spent the next eight months. Amidst the Allied invasion of southern Germany in April 1945. he fled to Switzerland, where he stayed nine months. From Bern on VE Day, Mitani urged his government to sue for peace "on the most favorable terms possible." He saw little hope of success by going through Moscow, and advocated quick overtures to the U.S. and Britain before the Soviet Union decided to enter the Pacific War. Mitani returned to Japan in early 1946. Resigning from the Foreign Ministry, he was selected as Director of the Women's Department, then Vice Director, of Gakushuin, the 'Peers School' which educated members of the Japanese aristocracy. Crown Prince Akihito attended during those years. In June 1948 Mitsani was appointed Grand Chamberlain in the royal household. His early years were those of the American occupation, the Korean War and the Peace Treaty conference in San Francisco. He accompanied MacArthur on regional tours, and saw him off on behalf of the Emperor when he was recalled to the United States. Mitani served as Chief Aide to the Crown Prince when he visited the Europe and the U.S. in 1953. He retired in 1965 and was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, First Class. Himself prominent in Japanese Christian circles, Mitani was a disciple of Uchimura Kanzō and younger brother of the Christian theologist Mitani Takamasa. His appointments to Gakushūin, then as Grand Chamberlain, have been seen as part of Hirohito's consideration in the immediate postwar years of a possible conversion of the royals to Christianity. His half-brother was Hasegawa Shin, author of "Mother of the Eyelids." A maternal grandson, Keiichiro Asao, is a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet. Mitani's Memoirs of the Grand Chamberlain was published (in Japanese) in 2024, the latest edition of a volume first printed in 1980.
Tōyama Shinaemon (Japanese: 遠山 品右衛門; 1851–1920) was a Japanese hunter and mountain guide. He was also a master angler.
Marshal-Admiral Count Itō Sukeyuki (伊東 祐亨, Itō Sukeyuki; also known as Itō Yūkō) (9 June 1843 – 16 January 1914) was a…
Marshal-Admiral Count Itō Sukeyuki (伊東 祐亨, Itō Sukeyuki; also known as Itō Yūkō) (9 June 1843 – 16 January 1914) was a Japanese career officer and admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in Meiji-period Japan.
Kawaji Toshiyoshi (川路 利良; 17 June 1834 – 13 October 1879), also known as Kawaji Toshikane, was a Japanese military…
Kawaji Toshiyoshi (川路 利良; 17 June 1834 – 13 October 1879), also known as Kawaji Toshikane, was a Japanese military general, politician, and samurai during the Meiji period. A Satsuma Domain samurai initially tasked to study foreign systems for application in the Japanese military, Kawaji fought against forces loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate during the Boshin War. Later, his work on setting up the Japanese police at the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration, first as rasotsu, and then as keisatsu, earned him the recognition as the founder of Japan's modern police system (日本警察の父; lit. 'Father of Japanese Police'). Besides his police and military work, he was also noted for his contributions to the development of Kendo, a Japanese martial art.