31 Notable alumni of
Nagoya University
Updated:
Nagoya University is 384th in the world, 75th in Asia, and 30th in Japan by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 31 notable alumni from Nagoya University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 3 individuals affiliated with Nagoya University won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry.
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Shōichirō Toyoda
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Studied in 1944-1947
- Occupations
- businesspersonengineer
- Biography
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Shoichiro Toyoda was a Japanese business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation from 1992 to 1999, as well as chairman of the influential Japan Business Federation (日本経済団体連合会, Nippon Keidanren) from 1994 to 1998. Under Toyoda's leadership, Toyota started manufacturing vehicles overseas and undertook the development of the Lexus brand. He was the grandson of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda and the son of the Toyota Motor founder Kiichiro Toyoda.
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Shuji Nakamura
- Occupations
- engineerinventorphysicistprofessor
- Biography
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Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese–American electronics engineer and co-inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. For this achievement, Nakamura, together with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.
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Osamu Shimomura
- Occupations
- university teacherorganic chemistchemistbiochemistmarine biologist
- Biography
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Osamu Shimomura was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist, and professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Boston University School of Medicine. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with two American scientists: Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and Roger Tsien of the University of California-San Diego.
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Ayuko Suzuki
- Occupations
- long-distance runnerathletics competitor
- Biography
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Ayuko Suzuki is a Japanese long-distance runner. She competed in the 5000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing finishing ninth. In addition, she won two medals at the 2013 Summer Universiade.
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Hiroshi Amano
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Studied in 1988
- Occupations
- university teacherengineerphysicist
- Biography
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Hiroshi Amano is a Japanese electronics engineer specializing in the field of semiconductor technology. He is a co-inventor of the blue LED, for which he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Isamu Akasaki and Shuji Nakamura.
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Toshihide Maskawa
- Occupations
- theoretical physicistprofessorphysicist
- Biography
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Toshihide Maskawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one quarter of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."
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Ryōji Noyori
- Occupations
- chemistprofessor
- Biography
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Ryōji Noyori is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his study in chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions (Sharpless epoxidation).
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Takeshi Umehara
- Occupations
- opinion journalistuniversity teacherwriterphilosopherplaywright
- Biography
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Takeshi Umehara was born in Miyagi Prefecture in Tōhoku and graduated from the philosophical faculty of Kyoto University in 1948. He taught philosophy at Ritsumeikan University and was subsequently appointed president of the Kyoto City University of Arts. He is noted for his prolific essays on Japanese culture, in which he has endeavoured to refound the discipline of Japanese studies along more Japanocentric lines, notably in his book Nihongaku kotohajime (日本学事始) written in 1972 in collaboration with Shunpei Ueyama. Aside from his voluminous academic essays on numerous aspects of Japanese culture he has also composed theatrical works on figures as varied as Yamato Takeru and Gilgamesh.
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Isamu Akasaki
- Occupations
- researcherengineerphysicistprofessor
- Biography
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Isamu Akasaki was a Japanese electronics engineer specializing in the field of semiconductor technology. He is best known for co-inventing the bright gallium nitride (GaN) p–n junction blue LED in 1989 and subsequently the high-brightness GaN blue LED as well.
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Takeshi Uchiyamada
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Takeshi Uchiyamada is a Japanese businessman, who has been chairman of Toyota since 2013. He graduated from Nagoya University. He is known as the "father of the Prius" for his role in leading the development of the Toyota Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid electric vehicle in history.
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Uichiro Niwa
- Occupations
- diplomatbusinessperson
- Biography
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Uichiro Niwa was a Japanese diplomat and businessman who served as the Ambassador of Japan to the People's Republic of China, president and chairman of Itochu Corporation, and chairman of the Society of Global Business (SGB).
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Manpei Takagi
- Occupations
- modelseiyūactorfilm actor
- Biography
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Manpei Takagi is a Japanese former actor and model from Seto, Aichi. He is best known for portraying Retsu Fukami/Geki Blue in the Super Sentai series Juken Sentai Gekiranger. He is the twin brother of actor Shinpei Takagi.
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Makoto Kobayashi
- Occupations
- physicisttheoretical physicist
- Biography
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Makoto Kobayashi is a Japanese physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one-fourth of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."
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Masayoshi Takemura
- Occupations
- professorpoliticianbureaucrat
- Biography
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Masayoshi Takemura was a Japanese politician. Elected as a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party, in 1993 he broke away to form New Party Sakigake, before joining the newly formed Democratic Party of Japan in 1998. He served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and then finance minister in the Murayama Cabinet of the mid-1990s.
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Shigeki Iwai
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Shigeki Iwai is a Japanese politician who has served as mayor of Higashiizu in Shizuoka Prefecture since 2022.
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Koji Nakanishi
- Occupations
- university teacherchemist
- Biography
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Koji Nakanishi was a Japanese chemist who studied bioorganic chemistry and natural products. He served as Centennial Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department at Columbia University.
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Tsuneko Okazaki
- Occupations
- geneticistbiologistmolecular biologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Tsuneko Okazaki is a Japanese pioneer of molecular biology known for her work on DNA replication and specifically for discovering Okazaki fragments, along with her late husband Reiji. Dr. Tsuneko Okazaki has continued to be involved in academia, contributing to more advancements in DNA research.
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Mitsunori Okamoto
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- In 1990 studied medical school
- Occupations
- internistpolitician
- Biography
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Mitsunori Okamoto is a Japanese politician of the Constitutional Democratic Party, who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Yōkaichi, Shiga and graduate of Nagoya University, he obtained his medical license in 1996 and received his Ph.D. in medicine from Nagoya University. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2003. He was defeated in the 2005 election. He ran again to the House of Representatives in 2009 in the 9th district of Aichi defeating Prime Minister from 1989 to 1991, Toshiki Kaifu in a stunning upset.
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Masayoshi Nagata
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Studied in 1947-1950
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Masayoshi Nagata was a Japanese mathematician, known for his work in the field of commutative algebra.
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Yoshito Kishi
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- chemistresearcherprofessor
- Biography
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Yoshito Kishi was a Japanese chemist who was the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University. He was known for his contributions to the sciences of organic synthesis and total synthesis.
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Kirio Urayama
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Kirio Urayama was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.
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Masatoşi Gündüz İkeda
- Years
- 1926-2003 (aged 77)
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Studied in 1953-1954
- Occupations
- mathematicianprofessor
- Biography
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Masatoşi Gündüz İkeda, was a Japanese-born Turkish mathematician known for his contributions to the field of algebraic number theory.
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Masatoshi Takeichi
- Occupations
- biologistresearcher
- Biography
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Masatoshi Takeichi is a Japanese cell biologist known for his identification of the cadherin class of adhesion molecules, which plays important roles in the construction of tissues. He shared the 2005 Japan Prize with Erkki Ruoslahti for "fundamental contribution in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion".
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Takeyuki Watanabe
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Takeyuki Watanabe is a Japanese politician who has served as a member of the House of Councillors of Japan since 2010. He represents the Gifu at-large district and is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
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Tomoji Abe
- Occupations
- translatorliterary criticnovelistwriter
- Biography
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Tomoji Abe was a Japanese novelist, social critic, humanist, and translator of English and American literature. Although he began writing as a modernist, in his later works he represented the intellectual movement in Japanese literature. This movement departed from Japanese traditional thinking and from established forms of narration, which focused on esthetic values and emotional states of mind (such as appear in the works of Junichiro Tanizaki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa); it also departed from modernist views, which continued to be popular in world literature and in Japan (Japanese modernist writers included Haruo Satō, Sei Ito, Tatsuo Hori, Riichi Yokomitsu and Yasunari Kawabata). Abe's intellectual approach was incompatible with the socio-political atmosphere of Japan in the early Shōwa period (1925–1945), with rising fascism and militarism, and the crusade to preserve Japanese feudal traditions.
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Haruhiko Okumura
- Occupations
- computer scientistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Haruhiko Okumura is a Japanese professor.
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Tohru Fukuyama
- Occupations
- university teacherchemist
- Biography
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Tohru Fukuyama is a Japanese organic chemist and Professor of Chemistry at University of Tokyo in Japan. He discovered the Fukuyama coupling in 1998.
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Akihiko Yamamoto
- Years
- 1947-.. (age 79)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Akihiko Yamamoto is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Aichi Prefecture and graduate of Nagoya University, he was elected to the first of his three terms in Aichi Prefectural Assembly in 1987 and then to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2000. He was defeated in the 2009 election by Kazuyoshi Morimoto of the Democratic Party of Japan.
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Akira Hasegawa
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- Graduated with Doctor of Science
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Akira Hasegawa 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.
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Takao Kondō
- Enrolled in Nagoya University
- In 1977 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in biology
- Occupations
- biologistresearchermicrobiologist
- Biography
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Takao Kondo was a Japanese biologist and professor of biological science at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. He is best known for reconstituting the circadian clock in vitro.
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Atsunobu Tomomatsu
- Occupations
- agronomist
- Biography
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Atsunobu Tomomatsu is a Japanese scholar in international relations. His specializations are studies of international cooperation, technical cooperation and international exchange. He is professor emeritus at Utsunomiya University, Japan.
