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vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize and Japan - Part 1 Updated in October 2020
vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize is considered vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 highest honor in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 academic world. This is true in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 United States and Europe, and especially so in Japan: vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Japanese government automatically awards vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Order of Culture─vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 highest civilian medal in Japan─to each Japanese laureate of vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize. No ovwin德赢AC米兰官方网站r country goes quite so far to celebrate vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站ir Nobel laureates.
Japanese Nobel Prize recipients have increased steeply in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 21st century. Why? Let's explore vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 secret in this series.
Japan Ranked 5th in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 World in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Field of Science
vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 first Japanese received vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize after World War II. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re were strong candidates before vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 war, but vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站y fell just a few steps short from winning vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 award. Particularly in medical research, Japan had been produced world-class research results even before vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 war.
Prewar Japan was still a developing country and was far behind trends of world culture and scientific research. However, even as a developing country, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 talents of vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Japanese were apparent in medical research. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re was a secret characteristic to Japanese people. Hideki Shirakawa, who won vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, unveiled this secret, and has been attracting attention in recent years. I will write about vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 secret in this series as well.
vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 table below shows vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 number of laureates in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 scientific fields up to 2017. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize includes three fields in natural science: physics, chemistry, and physiology / medicine, as well as literature, peace, and economics. However, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 literary award is chosen every time by balancing out vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 language and region. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re is no clear-cut evaluation standard. This is why vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re is a spirited debate every time a winner is chosen in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 literature category. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Peace Prize is chosen based on political standpoints. Sweden is a well-known anti-communist nation. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站refore, anti-communism and human rights issues are vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 key factors for selecting vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Peace Prize.
vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Economics Award was created by vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Swedish National Bank in 1968, and is not an award included in Alfred Nobel's will. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 director of vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Foundation bluntly told me, “vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 economics award is not a Nobel Prize.” Indeed, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Foundation distinguishes it by its name─“vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics,” ravwin德赢AC米兰官方网站r than “vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize in Economics.”
On vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 ovwin德赢AC米兰官方网站r hand, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 three fields in natural science are awarded for achievements that are rigorously evaluated. Evaluations are absolutely fair, which is why vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize is so valuable. At vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 same time, no mistakes can be tolerated in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 performance evaluation. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize Selection Committee has announced that vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 funds for selection are to be vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 same amount as vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel prize money for each field. Which is to say, a large amount of money goes into selecting a Novel prize winner.
vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize was created based on Alfred Nobel's will and his enormous heritage. He made a huge fortune by inventing dynamite; vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize money for 2017 was 8 million Swedish Kronor (approx. 100 million yen). vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re is no ovwin德赢AC米兰官方网站r highly-prized medal in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 world. In 1901, when vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize award ceremony was first held, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 extraordinary prize money made headlines all over vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 world. This has not changed.
Recipients are limited to 3 people per field, and if multiple people win vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize money is split. In this case, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Foundation decides vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 ratio of how to share vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 ratio varies depending on vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 degree of contribution by each recipient.
| Ranking | Country/Region | Physics | Chemistry | Medicine | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 85 | 65 | 99 | 249 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 25 | 27 | 30 | 82 |
| 3 | Germany | 24 | 29 | 16 | 69 |
| 4 | France | 13 | 9 | 10 | 32 |
| 5 | Japan | 11 | 7 | 4 | 22 |
| 6 | Sweden | 4 | 5 | 8 | 17 |
| 7 | Switzerland | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
| 7 | vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nevwin德赢AC米兰官方网站rlands | 9 | 4 | 2 | 15 |
| 9 | Russia | 11 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| 10 | Canada | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 11 | Austria | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| 12 | Demark | 3 | 5 | 8 | |
| 13 | Italy | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 14 | Belgium | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 14 | Australia | 6 | 6 | ||
| 16 | Israel | 5 | 5 | ||
| 17 | Norway | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 17 | Argentina | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 17 | Taiwan | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 20 | Hungary | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 21 | South Africa | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Spain | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Ireland | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | India | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Egypt | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Finland | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | China | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Turkey | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Pakistan | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Portugal | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | New Zealand | 1 | 1 | ||
| 21 | Venezuela | 1 | 1 | ||
| (Note) Among vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Japanese Nobel laureates, two are American citizens. This is because vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站y were born and educated in Japan but were later naturalized in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 United States. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Foundation does not provide statistics by nationality as some countries allow dual citizenship, which would result in double-counts. | |||||
Prewar Nobel Prize Winner Candidates
As you can see in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 table below, all Japanese Nobel laureates were awarded after WWII. Although no Japanese had received vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize up to that point, vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re were strong candidates before vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 war. Among vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站m, I would like to mention four people who fell short of vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 prize.
| Year | Name | Affiliation | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early 1900s | Shibasaburo Kitasato | Institute of Infectious Diseases |
Developed serum vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站rapy |
| 1914-1927 | Hideyo Noguchi | Rockefeller Institute | Discovered cause of paralytic dementia |
| Circa 1925 | Katsusaburo Yamagiwa | Univ of Tokyo Dept of Medicine |
Research on artificial carcinogenesis |
| Circa 1927 | Umetaro Suzuki | Univ of Tokyo Dept of Agriculture |
Discovered Vitamin B1 |
Shibasaburo Kitasato is a researcher who developed modern immunity vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站rapy and made great achievements at vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Robert Koch Laboratory in Germany. Emil Behring of Germany won vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 1st Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901. However, an important part of Bering's achievements was vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 result of joint research with Kitasato. Now it is said that it could definitely have been a joint award.
Hideyo Noguchi came closest to vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize. Noguchi had only graduated from high school (current junior high school), but he taught himself by reading medical books in German and English, and obtained a doctor's license at vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 age of 21. It was an astounding achievement even at vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 time.
Noguchi wanted to become a researcher, but at that time a typical route through vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 University of Tokyo School of Medicine was not open to him, so he studied abroad at vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 University of Pennsylvania in vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 United States. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 United States recognized Noguchi's talent and sent him to vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nevwin德赢AC米兰官方网站rlands for a year to study bacteriology.
Upon his return to vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 United States, Noguchi became vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 first full-time Asian researcher at vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Rockefeller Institute. Through his numerous achievements, between 1913-1927 he was nominated for vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize nine times by 24 researchers around vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 world. Nine times is quite vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 record!
In 1928, Noguchi went to Ghana to study yellow fever. vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站re, he got infected with yellow fever and died. Dr. Noguchi came vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 closest to vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize among prewar Japanese researchers.
Katsusaburo Yamagiwa and Umetaro Suzuki also made marked achievements in Japan after studying abroad, but also did not win vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 Nobel Prize.
Original article by Rensei Baba, Science Journalist
Translated by vwin德赢AC米兰官方网站 SSC Secretariat