Famous Japanese Inventors & Discoverers

Momofuku Ando was a Taiwanese-Japanese businessman and inventor. He is credited with founding the popular Japanese food company, Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. Credited with creating brands like Cup Noodles and Top Ramen, Momofuku Ando is widely regarded as the inventor of instant noodles. During his lifetime, Ando was honored with medals, such as the Order of the Rising Sun.

Japanese surrealist author Kōbō Abe is remembered for his Kafka-esque style and his bestselling novels such as The Woman in the Dunes. Though he studied medicine, pushed into it by his physician father, he never practiced. The Akutagawa Prize winner was also initially a communist but was later expelled.

Widely known as the God of Management in Japan, Kōnosuke Matsushita began his career as an errand boy and gradually set up his own consumer electric appliances manufacturing company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. He later founded the brand Panasonic. He had also penned several books on management.

Japanese pearl farmer and entrepreneur Mikimoto Kōkichi pioneered the cultured pearl industry. He later monopolized the industry, organizing exhibitions and launching sales offices worldwide. A crown manufactured by the Mikimoto Pearl Company was later used by Ms. Universe winners, while the company also designed for the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants.

Amano Hiroshi is a Japanese physicist, inventor, and engineer. Amano, who specializes in semiconductor technology, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 alongside Shuji Nakamura and Isamu Akasaki. They received the award for inventing blue LEDs. Over the course of his career, Amano Hiroshi has also been honored with several other awards, such as the Asia Game Changer Award.

Jokichi Takamine was a Japanese chemist best remembered as the first person to isolate epinephrine in 1901. He is credited with founding the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company in Japan as well as the Nippon Club of New York City in the USA. Jokichi Takamine's life and career inspired a couple of films, namely Sakura, Sakura and Takamine.

Shiga Kiyoshi was a Japanese bacteriologist and physician. He is credited for many scientific discoveries, including the discovery of the Shigella dysenteriae microorganism. He also conducted research on diseases such as trypanosomiasis and tuberculosis. Kiyoshi Shiga is also credited with making numerous advancements in immunology and bacteriology.