WIsamu Akasaki was a Japanese engineer and physicist, specializing in the field of semiconductor technology and Nobel Prize laureate, best known for inventing the bright gallium nitride (GaN) p-n junction blue LED in 1989 and subsequently the high-brightness GaN blue LED as well.
WTakashi Gojobori is a Japanese molecular biologist, Vice-Director of the National Institute of Genetics (NIG) and Distinguished Professor at Center for Information Biology and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) in NIG, Mishima, Japan. He has also been co-appointed as the Special Research Consultant of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), as a Visiting Professor of Keio University, University of Tokyo, and Tokyo Institute of Technology and as a Visiting Research Director of RIKEN.
WShōtarō Ikenami was a Japanese author. He wrote a number of historical novels. He won the Naoki Award for popular literature in 1960. Many of his historical novels were adapted for TV and cinema.
WShinichi Kitaoka is a Japanese political scientist and the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and a former president of the International University of Japan, a professor at Japan's GRIPS-Tokyo School of Security and International Studies and the former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations. His major is the history of Japanese politics and diplomacy, as a political scientist and a historian.
WYūji Koseki was a Japanese ryūkōka, gunka, march, fight song and film score composer. His real name was also Yūji Koseki, but its kanji was 古關 勇治.
WMaki Kawai is a Japanese chemist who developed spatially selective single-molecule spectroscopy. In 2018, she became the first woman to become president of the Chemical Society of Japan.
WMasao Miki , better known by his pen name Rofū Miki , was a Japanese poet, children's book author and essayist. He is considered a significant representative of Japanese symbolism.
WYoshinobu Miyake is a retired Japanese weightlifter and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Lieutenant. He won one silver and two gold medals at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics and finished fourth in 1972. He also won world titles in 1962, 1963 and 1965–66. Between 1959 and 1969 Miyake set 25 official world records, including 10 consecutive records in the snatch and nine consecutive records in the total. In 1993 he was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
WMakoto Nagao 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).
WSen Sōshitsu XV (十五代千宗室) is the 15th-generation Grand Master (iemoto) of Urasenke, which is one of the most widely known schools of Japanese tea, and served in official capacity from 1964 to 2002. In 1949, he received the Zen title Hōunsai (鵬雲斎). Following his retirement, he has adopted the name Sen Genshitsu (玄室), with the honorary title Daisosho, in order to distinguish him from his son and successor, Sen Sōshitsu XVI. For over seven decades, Dr. Sen Genshitsu has traveled across the world in order to promote the ethos of "Peacefulness through a Bowl of Tea".
WHitoshi Ueki was a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and guitarist. He won six awards for acting. His film credits stretch from 1960 to 1995.
WHisashi Yamamoto is a prominent organic chemist and currently a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago and professor of Chubu University.
WYoshiki Hayashi , known as Yoshiki, is a Japanese musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. He is best known as the leader and a co-founder of the visual kei rock band X Japan, for which he is the drummer, pianist and main songwriter. He has been described by Billboard as a "musical innovator" and named "one of the most influential composers in Japanese history" by Consequence of Sound. Yoshiki's solo career includes several classical studio albums and collaborations with artists such as George Martin, Bono, will.i.am, Jennifer Hudson, St. Vincent, Stan Lee, Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, Gene Simmons and KISS, Nicole Scherzinger, and Sarah Brightman.