The day after

That makes 7 Japanese Nobel Prize winners in the past 5 years. Not bad!

According to reports, Japan has the 2nd most Nobel Laureates and what I found out is that little known Nagoya University has 4 of them.

cornbread1's comment is interesting - is there a source for it? It would be interesting to see where that statistic came from.

Some totals for all Nobel prizes: US 331, UK 116, Germany 102, France 64, Sweden 30, Japan 20...

Or do you mean in some specific case, like 'Only Physics Nobel prizes awarded since 2000'... Not that breakdown by country is especially important in this enlightened age, after all most research is a result of international collaboration these days.

dragsby, we heard it on a news channel a couple of days ago and my wife and I were like, wow, that's something. But upon researching on wikipedia, I do stand corrected.

What normally happens to these guys once they win here in Japan. I remember a few years ago that there was a report that it was a mixed blessing for those who win. You get the recognition, but at the same time, if you happen to be a younger person like the person the story was talking about the older researchers tend to look down and get jealous, since they think they may have somehow exceeded them out of turn, and the normal Japanese style "bullying" starts to occur. So much so that some winners are forced into obscurity.

I think it is a good thing that people still have drive and determination to excell in the sciences. I just hope that their research applications actually get to reach the people, and not jus locked up in some corporate boardroom because it would change the way things have been operating for so long.

Hi cornbread... no worries, sorry for jumping in too quickly. If we checked everything on the news we'd never get anything else done! :-)

I've seen a bit of inaccurate reporting myself, even on NHK - on 'close-up gendai' yesterday (or was it the 7pm news? I forget).

If you saw the NHK report you'd think it was only Mr. Yamanaka that won the Nobel Prize, when it was in fact joint with Mr. Gurdon. They mentioned the UK guy almost as a side-note near the end. The BBC news, in comparison, mentioned them more equally throughout the reporting (see the BBC news website, you'll see what I mean).

Yamanaka's work is a major break through equivalent to Flemings discovery of Penicillin ( though accidental) . ............... .. Stem cell bio-techonology revolutionizes disease treatment.

What normally happens to these guys once they win here in Japan. I remember a few years ago that there was a >report that it was a mixed blessing for those who win. You get the recognition, but at the same time, if you happen to be a younger person like the person the story was talking about the older researchers tend to look down and get jealous, since they think they may have somehow exceeded them out of turn, and the normal Japanese style "bullying" starts to occur. So much so that some winners are forced into obscurity.

I wouldn't go as far as claiming this is typical Japanese. There is so much jealousy and animosity between scientists anywhere in the world. You wouldn't believe how childish they can get.

congrats to Yananaka-sensei!

Congrats to both of them - Gurdon and Yamanaka. It`s very important research.

6 native-born Japanese have been awarded Nobel prizes in Physics; 6 have been awarded prizes in Chemistry; 2 have been awarded in Physiology or Medicine; 2 have been awarded prizes in Literature; and 1 has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

(Source: <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/create.html?active=1&cat_all=all&year1=Type+year&year2=Type+year&laureate=Type+a+name+or+names+of+a+Laureate&born_in%5B%5D=32&born1_year=0&born1_month=0&born1_day=0&born2_year=0&born2_month=0&born2_day=0&citation=Type+a+word+or+words+from+the+prize+motivation+text&sorting=cat >)

NOTE: the latest award winner has not been added to this search list, but I did add him into the count for the Physiology or Medicine award.

Well that didn't work right.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/all/create.html?active=1&cat_all=all&year1=Type+year&year2=Type+year&laureate=Type+a+name+or+names+of+a+Laureate&born_in%5B%5D=32&born1_year=0&born1_month=0&born1_day=0&born2_year=0&born2_month=0&born2_day=0&citation=Type+a+word+or+words+from+the+prize+motivation+text&sorting=cat

Still ugly, but at least the link works now.

Wonderful congratulations to him and his family..and to the university.Well done. Lets focus on the great news and not worry so much about statistics.

Congratulations to him and all who earned their Nobel Prizes! Unlike Obama, who was "given" one literally for making a few speeches.

Congrats to him and his colleague for their hard work! Is the guy with the yellow pad doing a "gangsta" pose?