Satoshi Fujii (藤井聡, Fujii Satoshi) is a Japanese civil engineer, economist and social critic, who served as a special…Satoshi Fujii (藤井聡, Fujii Satoshi) is a Japanese civil engineer, economist and social critic, who served as a special advisor to the Abe cabinet until his voluntary Retirement. He is Professor of civil engineering at Kyoto University and the editor-in-chief of Hyogensha Criterion, an academic journal in Japan. Fujii defends nationalism, public works, and modern monetary theory, and is opposed to excessive globalization and neoliberalism. He is a proponent of pragmatism and conservatism. He, along with Takeshi Nakano, has spread MMT to Japan from a conservative standpoint.
Shinya Yamanaka (山中 伸弥, Yamanaka Shin'ya; born September 4, 1962) is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize…Shinya Yamanaka (山中 伸弥, Yamanaka Shin'ya; born September 4, 1962) is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He is a professor and the director emeritus of the Center for iPS Cell (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) Research and Application, Kyoto University; as well as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California, and a professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Yamanaka is also a past president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). He received the 2010 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the biomedicine category, the 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine with Rudolf Jaenisch, and the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize together with Linus Torvalds. In 2012, he and John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. In 2013, he was awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work.
Banmei Takahashi (高橋伴明, Takahashi Banmei) (or Tomoaki Takahashi) is a Japanese film director. Takahashi started his…Banmei Takahashi (高橋伴明, Takahashi Banmei) (or Tomoaki Takahashi) is a Japanese film director. Takahashi started his career in the pink film industry, making his directorial debut in 1972 with Escaped Rapist Criminal. Due to a disagreement with his producer, Takahashi quit the film industry for a couple years. He joined pink film pioneer Kōji Wakamatsu's production studio in 1975, working as a script-writer until Wakamatsu produced Takahashi's second film, Delinquent File: Juvenile Prostitution (1976). For the next few years Takahashi averaged five films annually at Wakamatsu's studio, until Takahashi left to start his own production company in 1979. Takahashi married Nikkatsu Roman Porno and pink film actress Keiko Sekine who then changed her name to Keiko Takahashi and starred in several of Takahashi's films. Sekine appeared in Takahashi's Tattoo Ari (1982), a mainstream box-office hit which won Takahashi the award for Best Director at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival. With the success of this film, Takahashi dissolved Takahashi Productions to focus on mainstream filmmaking. Takahashi's 1994 film Ai no Shinsekai, inspired by photographer Nobuyoshi Araki's work, is significant as the first Japanese production to play uncensored and unfogged domestically.
Shinichi Kitaoka (北岡 伸一, Kitaoka Shin'ichi; born 20 April 1948) is a Japanese political scientist. He has held many…Shinichi Kitaoka (北岡 伸一, Kitaoka Shin'ichi; born 20 April 1948) is a Japanese political scientist. He has held many roles such as the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), president of the International University of Japan, professor at Japan's GRIPS-Tokyo School of Security and International Studies, and Japanese ambassador to the United Nations. His area of expertise is the history of Japanese politics and diplomacy, as a political scientist and a historian.
Yuji Ijiri (Japanese: 井尻 雄士, romanized: Ijiri Yūji) (24 February 1935 – 18 January 2017) was a Japanese economist…Yuji Ijiri (Japanese: 井尻 雄士, romanized: Ijiri Yūji) (24 February 1935 – 18 January 2017) was a Japanese economist, accounting researcher and educator. He was the Robert M. Trueblood University Professor of Accounting and Economics at Carnegie Mellon University until his retirement on June 30, 2011. He is noted in economics and finance for his contributions to research on firm growth and the general field of mathematical economics, and in particular power laws in economics. In accounting, he is known for his proposal of triple-entry accounting. At the age of 21 he became a Certified Public Accountant in Japan, and remains the youngest person to do so. He died of natural causes on 18 January 2017.
Fumiko Ikawa-Smith is a Japanese Canadian archaeologist. She is an emeritus professor in the department of anthropology…Fumiko Ikawa-Smith is a Japanese Canadian archaeologist. She is an emeritus professor in the department of anthropology at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She trained as an anthropologist and prehistorian and specialises in the Early Palaeolithic cultures in East Asia, specifically Japan). She is married to Philip E. L. Smith, also an archaeologist, with one son.
Kenichi Fukui (福井 謙一, Fukui Ken'ichi; October 4, 1918 – January 9, 1998) was a Japanese chemist. He became the first…Kenichi Fukui (福井 謙一, Fukui Ken'ichi; October 4, 1918 – January 9, 1998) was a Japanese chemist. He became the first person of East Asian ancestry to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry when he won the 1981 prize with Roald Hoffmann, for their independent investigations into the mechanisms of chemical reactions. Fukui's prize-winning work focused on the role of frontier orbitals in chemical reactions: specifically that molecules share loosely bonded electrons which occupy the frontier orbitals, that is, the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO).
Tetsunosuke Onishi (大西 鐡之祐, Ōnishi Tetsunosuke; April 7, 1916 – September 19, 1995) was a professor of Waseda…Tetsunosuke Onishi (大西 鐡之祐, Ōnishi Tetsunosuke; April 7, 1916 – September 19, 1995) was a professor of Waseda University, coach of the Japan national rugby union team and Waseda University Rugby Football Club. He has been described as a Japanese Carwyn James and was a coach of considerable achievements. He also served as a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa (March 8, 1915 – October 7, 1992) was an eminent Japanese American scholar in religious studies.…Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa (March 8, 1915 – October 7, 1992) was an eminent Japanese American scholar in religious studies. He was professor emeritus and dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is considered one of the founders of the field of the history of religions. He is known for his contributions to the study of religious traditions in Asia and intercultural understanding of the East and the West. Kitagawa was born in Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from Rikkyo University in Tokyo in 1937. He came to the United States to study theology in 1941. During World War II, Kitagawa was interned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center at Hunt, Idaho, where he remained until October 1945. He received his B.D. from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in 1947. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and joined the faculty of the Divinity School in 1951. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955. Kitagawa was a founding editor of History of Religions. He served as president of the American Society for the Study of Religions from 1960 to 1972 and Vice President of the International Association for the History of Religions from 1975 to 1985. He was a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Tokyo, and Koyasan University. His wife, Evelyn M. Kitagawa, was a sociologist, and his daughter, Anne Rose Kitagawa, became a notable curator of Asian art.